Ronin
by The Shredded Snorlax
Summary: The first virtue of a soldier is the endurance of fatigue. Courage is the second, Empathy is the third. I do not own Highschool Of The Dead or its characters. All original content is mine.
1. Chapter 1

_Ronin_

 _Chapter One_

It is a universal truth, that the warrior is shunned by society until the enemy are at the gates. In times of peace, they are deemed as an expensive drain on society, subject to ridicule and abuse. But in times of war, those who ridicule are the first to remind the warriors of their duty to defend them, regardless of what has been said or done.

Kohta Hirano thought that the same can be said of the Otaku. Throughout their lives, they were bullied for being outcasts from society. Yet when the need arose, the Otaku were expected to stand and serve that same society that had branded them as alien.

So, in many ways, Kohta was happy that the undead apocalypse came. Because of it, he was free of all social rhetoric that bound him and free to be who he wanted to be. Before he was an outcast, now he was a warrior. A contractor working for his former Blackwater instructor's company: Spartan PMC.

He had left Japan a broken boy, and now he returned a less broken man.

…

 **May 2016, Tokyo Bay, Japan**

Kohta's eye's flicked open as he felt the C5M Super Galaxy transport bank gently to port and begin to descend, causing the contractor to pitch forward in his harness. They were nearly there.

Sat with him around the cavernous, flood light lit cargo hold were twenty-nine other contractors of Spartan PMC. The advanced guard for a large-scale contract they'd signed with the Japanese government. Some were playing cards or talking while others checked weapons or gear. A few were doing press ups in the middle of the cargo bay, but most like Kohta slept, knowing they would likely get little sleep in the weeks to come.

Beneath his canvas seat, something shifted and murmured, a small animalistic noise that was somewhere between a growl and a whimper.

Kohta smiled and put a hand under the seat. "Come on," he said softly. "Come on out, boy." Something wet nuzzled and lapped over Kohta's offered hand, but the owner made no other movements.

Kohta sighed as he withdrew his hand and whipped it dry on his combat trousers. Krieger hated flying about as much as Kohta hated running. As soon as they'd boarded, Krieger had darted under Kohta's seat and refused to come out, like a child hiding from some terrifying monster.

Kohta produced a tennis ball from his pack, holding it in hand and lowering it below the lip of the seat. The bulge in the canvas shifted slightly as the ball appeared below.

"What's this boy?" Kohta asked, drawing the attention of a few of the nearby contractors. "What's this? You want it? You want your ball? Go fetch!"

Kohta tossed the ball across the cargo bay. The canvas shifted suddenly as the ball bounced, but then stopped, like someone had started for something then thought better of it, before settling down again. Kohta sighed as a few of the contractors jeered at him. There was only one thing for it.

Gingerly, Kohta teased a large piece of beef jerky from his pocket and lowered it below the seat. The canvas shifted and Kohta could hear panting and salivating. Kohta chuckled to himself, he'd got him. As with most males of any species, the quickest way to Krieger's heart was through his stomach.

He waved it around for a moment in front of Krieger's eyes, mesmerizing his partner with its smokey scent and potential yumminess, before tossing it across the cargo bay as he had with the tennis ball.

This time the canvas moved and didn't stop. A large flash of brown and black fur burst forwards from under the seat and darted for the jerky, practically snatching it out of mid-air and wolfing it down to cheers and applause from the watching contractors. Kohta smiled as the German Shepherd picked up his ball and wandered back over to him, tail wagging and panting happily.

Oh, the envious life of a dog, simple and clueless.

With a burst of static from overhead, the intercom winked on and the pilot's voice sounded through the cargo hold.

" _Attention all hands, we're beginning our descent into Haneda Airport. Touch down in approximately ten minutes. Gear up."_

The intercom winked off. Further down the line from Kohta, a contractor well into his fifty's rose from his seat. His MultiCam combat fatigues were faded and his skin was tanned from years of service, framed by a neatly trimmed silver goatee. It was Douglas McCowan, former SAS Staff Sergeant and the senior field contractor for Spartan PMC.

"Right! You heard the man!" He shouted through the cargo hold with a thick, Scottish accent. "Lock and load boys!"

As if commanded by the Lord God himself, the contractors started donning body armor, loading weapons, and checking gear for deployment.

Kohta beckoned Krieger over to him and ordered him to sit, which he did obediently while Kohta removed his combat harness from his bag. As soon as he saw it, Krieger immediately changed from playful pup to Army working dog.

Krieger was a patrol dog assigned to Kohta's recon team. His main job was to sniff out the undead when they were on patrol and act as an early warning system, but he also carried Kohta's spare ammo and some supplies on his harness and doubled as a guard dog when he was alone on sniper duty.

Kohta slipped the harness on and clipped the straps in place, tightening them so the harness didn't rattle but also was comfortable for Krieger.

"That good?" He asked. Krieger woofed and gave Kohta an affectionate lick to the face, to which he chuckled. "Alright, down."

Krieger hesitated. He whined and looked at the pocket where Kohta kept his jerky.

Kohta sighed. "Fine. One more." He plucked another piece and fed it to Krieger, who immediately lay down across his master's boots and started chewing. The contractor sat next to Kohta chuckled as she slipped on her helmet.

"I swear you feed him better than you feed yourself," Skye said as she clipped her helmet in place and Kohta slipped on his plate carrier.

"I'm just a sniper, Skye," Kohta shrugged as he flashed her a smile. "He works harder than me."

"Ya damn right he does," McCowan agreed playfully as he paused his walk up the line to give Krieger a scratch behind the ears. He glanced up and down Kohta's combat gear. "You reckon you've got enough firepower their lad?"

Kohta smirked back at him, "You think I should take more?"

The Scot shook his head in amused disparity as he continued up towards the cockpit. He did have a point though; Kohta was carrying more firepower than most of his fellow contractors.

Propped on the seat next to him was his primary weapon; an FN SCAR H battle rifle, configured with a CQB barrel, QD suppressor, 4X Elcan scope with a CQB sight, flick down bipod and a PEQ-15 laser light module. Holstered on his right hip was his Nighthawk custom 1911 in .45, and in a cross-pull holster across his chest was a Sig P226 Mk25 in 9mm. He also had a Tanto fighting knife on his left collar bone for emergency's and finally, stowed away in the mobile armory they were bringing with them; an Accuracy International Arctic Warfare Super Magnum sniper rifle chambered in .338 Lapua magnum. Just for those occasions when his SCAR wouldn't cut it and a full sniper rifle was required.

As the titanic C5 began to make its final approach, Kohta did a final kit check, checking that all his magazines, sidearms, smoke grenades and ancillaries were all in order and secure, before quickly tying a green scrim scarf around his neck, donning his prescription ballistic glasses and his MultiCam operator baseball cap. He clipped Krieger's lead to his gear and slapped a magazine into the SCAR.

Now he was ready to face the world.

The Galaxy began to shudder and the Kohta's stomach felt heavy as the aircraft's gigantic wings struggled to keep it aloft just above the runway before the pilots finally set it down with a violent _thud_ and shudder. There was a brief roar from the engines as they engaged reverse thrust to slow the aircraft, bringing the several hundred ton jet to a near stop, before the roaring died and it taxied off the runway before coming to an eventual stop alongside the main airport terminal.

As soon as the engines died, the contractors stood started to gather their remaining equipment, throwing daysacks on their backs and throwing any last remaining items into pouches or pockets.

"Listen in!" McCowan shouted as he made his way back down from the cockpit. Everyone shut up and listened to the aged Scot. "When the door goes down, ye will be directed and go straight into the terminal building! Ya will not stop! Ya will not have a gingangoolie on the tarmac! Do you understand?!"

"Yes Staff!" The contractors shouted back. Colonel Lail may be the one who signed their pay checks, but McCowan held the practical power. If he wanted something done, you did it without hesitation. McCowan grabbed his rifle off his seat and slammed a button on the wall. The pneumatic thud of hydraulic bolts disengaging sounded through the cargo hold and daylight and fresh sea air began to flood into the hold.

"Good! Now get off ma plane!"

As soon as the ramp went down the contractors disembarked; jogging one after another down the ramp and into the bright daylight sky.

It was a warm summer for Japan. Despite the cooling salty sea air rolling in from Tokyo Bay, Kohta could feel the heat from the beating sun making him sweat under his fleece and plate carrier. He pulled the zipper down on his fleece slightly and kept jogging, following the man in front towards the terminal building.

They were flanked on either side by a line of uniformed JSDF soldiers, type 89 assault rifles held in a low ready, locked and loaded, covered by a handful of fifty cal armed Humvees. A half formed thought crossed Kohta's mind before being squashed by military logic.

The contractors were ushered inside and through a security checkpoint, where their IDs were checked and names crossed off a list before being directed into a conference room, leaving their daysacks and bags at the door and taking a seat in the rows of chairs before a raised stage adorned with a Japanese flag.

For a minute, nothing happened. A few of the contractors began to chat among themselves until a side door opened and three people stepped onto the stage. The first was Colonel Lail, the founder and CEO of Spartan PMC, dressed in a formal suit rather than his usual combat fatigues.

The people that followed him were who made Kohta's eyes widen.

The first was Don Souichiro Takagi, the towering titan of a man who'd taken him into his home and given him the right to bear arms to protect his daughter. The man was much as Kohta remembered him to be, his predatory orange eyes were just as intimidating as when they had he'd confronted him over his right to keep his guns. Kohta felt the Don's eyes pause over him, and he fixed Kohta with a stare that felt like it could melt the Kevlar off Kohta's vest, before continuing his scan of the crowd.

Standing with the Don, slightly to his right and rear, was Saeko Busujima. Saeko had grown a few inches since Kohta had last seen her and she seemed slimmer and more curvaceous than last time, but she looked much the same as she had before. What surprised Kohta most about her appearance, however, was that she was wearing: a charcoal gray business suit complete with knee length skirt and short office heels which looked out of place with the crimson red of Murata-tou's saya, hanging from her belt at her hip.

If she did spot him, she didn't show it, But Kohta found it interesting that she was, judging by her dress, positioning and stance, serving as some sort of secretary or bodyguard to the Don. It made him wonder two things; Firstly, if maybe Lord Takagi had some of his old group in his service too.

And secondly: Why would a warrior as capable as Don Takagi, a man who Kohta had seen scythe his way through a horde of undead armed with only a sword (and his gun toting wife), need a body guard in the first place? The fact that it was Saeko wasn't that surprising to him. He was the one after all, who'd entrusted her with that sword and she'd proven herself a more than capable warrior. But the fact that he even needed one made Kohta wonder if they were facing something more dangerous than the 'Training, assistance and Logistical support' they'd been contracted to provide.

Colonel Lail cleared his throat on stage and grabbed the attention of the contractors.

"Ladies and Gentlemen." He said in his slight Texan accent. "Welcome to Japan. Did we have a good flight?"

He paused to allow a slight affirmative mumble punctuated by the odd "Yes sir" from the crowd.

"Glad to hear it," he continued. "Now before we begin our acclimatization briefs, Prime Minister Takagi would like to say a few words."

'Prime Minister?' Kohta though. Clearly, the Takagi's had been busy since he'd left.

"Thank you, Colonel." The former Lord of Tokonosu said with a respectful nod to the Colonel before stepping forward and addressing the assembled men and women seated before him.

"Ladies, Gentlemen, on behalf of myself and the people of Japan, I welcome you to our great nation."

Kohta sat up and listened with vivid interest. He wanted to know what had been happening in his homeland since his departure nearly five years ago.

"In the last five years, we've accomplished much." Lord Takagi continued. "We've established over a dozen settlements around Japan, each contributing to the state as a whole. But our efforts have been hindered by a lack of experience in special operations and by the activity of rogue elements…"

'There it is.' Kohta thought. 'The military would have picked up how to fight the undead or avoid the undead in time. But they don't have any special forces capability to deal with rogue settlements or raiders. So they need us to train them to do it, or pay us to do it ourselves.'

"… With your training and assistance, we can track and deal with these rogue groups, and begin to reforge Japan into the great nation she once was. Thank you."

Lord Takagi bowed slightly to the contractors, as did Saeko. McCowan stood from his seat and addressed the Lord.

"I think I speak for everyone here when I say, it's our pleasure to be here, sir," he said with a nod. "You're in good hands. We'll sort you out right."

Lord Takagi nodded respectfully to the Scot before Saeko stepped forward and whispered something in his ear. Takagi nodded and he and Saeko departed, although Kotha swore he saw both him and Saeko give him a final glance as they left through the side door they'd entered through. But before he could dwell on it further, Colonel Lail retook center stage again.

"Alright, we've got a lot to cover so get comfy and listen in." the man said, flipping over a clipboard and beginning his briefing.

"Actions upon contact with an infected…"

* * *

 **A/N** Thank you to all who have been following my work and who take the time to review. Each one encourages me to write more and more.

Special shout out to Draco38 who takes the time out of his busy schedule to beta and troubleshoot my stories.

Please Read, review and Favourite my work.

Jango

* * *

 **Update 11th October 2017**

 **Change of Kotha's sniper rifle from AI AXMC to AI Arctic Warfare Super Magnum due to date error**


	2. Chapter 2

_Ronin_

 _Chapter Two_

 _A thunderclap obliterated the dawn silence._

" _Man down! Man down!"_

" _Fuck!" Kohta cursed as he pounded up the stairs to the roof two at a time. The bastard had got another one._

 _He and his spotter kicked the door open to the roof and turned towards the direction of fire, hunched low and throwing themselves down prone behind the berm of the building. They worked quickly to set up their position as command came over the radio._

" _Team last transmitting, contact report!"_

" _This is Fireteam Boomerang! We're pinned down on Sutherland Street by a sniper. One man down. Over!"_

" _Status of man down?"_

" _KIA. His chest is just… gone!"_

" _Sounds like our guy." Hobbs muttered as he set up his spotter scope. Kohta grunted a response as he flicked the bipod down on his MacMillan Tac-338 sniper rifle, cycling the bolt and settling the butt into his shoulder, scanning the suburbia ahead of him for any hit of the enemy sniper._

 _Their target was good… very good. In the past four days, they had killed or wounded twelve contractors, and each time it was the same MO: A single fifty caliber round, fired from long range into center mass, never sticking around for a follow-up shot. This was clearly someone who had military training and knew their way around their rifle._

 _Kohta was no slouch. He was a crack shot and a hell of a battlefield marksman, but he was not yet a fully trained sniper with years of experience under his belt. He was a contractor in training who'd scored top in his class in the last marksmanship tests, and had subsequently sent on a three-week sniper course, then handed a sniper rifle and told to go out and get some battlefield experience… and that included counter sniper operations._

" _Reckon we'll get him this time?" Hobbs asked, half looking through his spotter scope, half listening to the radio chatter._

 _"Doubt it," Kohta replied absently. He was focusing through his rifle scope, looking for any signs of movement that might give away the sniper's location while also trying to work out if it were him, where would he have shot from._

 _There! A shift of movement, black on black. He saw a flash... then heard the thunderclap._

 _"Got him. Grey skyscraper, fifth floor down, broken window two right of the white curtain." Kohta said, setting his sights and started slowing his breathing. Hobbs twisted his scope around, focusing on the tower block and following Kohta's instructions to the target window._

" _Got him." Hobbs murmured._

 _"Range it." Kohta and Hobbs began going through the meticulous calculations needed for the shot. They had become well versed in calculating all the factors that affected the shot; windage, humidity, bullet drop, barometric pressure and a dozen other factors that affected the round as it_ _traveled_ _between his rifle and its target._

" _Final read_ _,_ _" Kohta whispered, breathing slowly and bringing his heartbeat down as low as he could._

" _Range: Nine hundred Seventy-Two meters_ _,_ _" Hobbs replied, fully aware that it was the farthest Kohta had ever shot. "Windage; two knots, right to left. Angle of elevation: Plus four."_

 _The target hadn't moved. Kohta could see the muzzle of his weapon, a slight hint of metallic_ _gray_ _against the blackness. He was waiting for the squad below to make another move. It would be the last mistake he ever made._

" _Fire. Fire. Fire." Kohta said slowly, emptying his lungs of air applying gentle pressure to the trigger._

 _The MacMillan kicked, an ear-splitting crack rang out across the roof tops. Kohta hadn't had the time to affix its suppressor but right now that didn't matter. He kept his eye on the scope, following the phosphorus red dot of the round's tracer… as it drifted into the concrete just below the sniper's window._

' _Shit!' Kohta screamed mentally. He quickly cycled the bolt to chamber another round and was still re-sighting his target, when he saw the enemy sniper's muzzle flash again._

 _Kohta felt the round before he heard it. It was a like the hurricane you felt when a freight train ran close by. He twitched a smile and fired back._

 _This time, his aim was true. The sniper jerked as Kohta's round found its mark, blowing a hole in the sniper's shoulder that caused him to jerk, roll off the table, and fall to the floor where he bled out._

" _YES!" Kohta cheered happily, before getting on the radio to call it in. "This is Sniper team Foxbat. Enemy sniper down, repeat enemy sniper down!" He slapped Hobbs on the back happily. "We did it_ _,_ _Hobbs! We did… it…"_

 _Kohta looked at his gloved hand. It was covered in blood. He wasn't hit so how could he…He slowly turned towards Hobbs._

 _The spotter scope was smashed, broken into a thousand pieces. Many, along with the bullet, had gone through Hobbs's head. Turning the once bright, grinning young man's face into something that resembled a burst watermelon._

 _Kohta's breath began to waiver…_ and then he screamed.

His eyes shot open. He was bolt upright in bed his Nighthawk outstretched in front of him, scanning for a target while his heart hammered like a machine gun in his chest.

It took him a moment to remember where he was. He was in his room at the Jade Traveller Hotel; A twelve story hotel building that had been given over to the contractors as the central base of operations in the Tokyo Settlement and by extension, Japan.

Kohta lowered his Nighthawk and struggled to catch his breath.

It'd happened again. He felt ashamed.

Krieger jumped up onto the bed and approached his master, pawing him gently and whining as if asking what was wrong.

"I'm ok, boy," Kohta told him reassuringly, placing a hand on Krieger's head and giving him a pat. "I'm ok."

Kohta glanced at the clock on the bed side table. It was coming up on 4:30. The sun would be up soon, perhaps some fresh air and a sun rise would help him relax. He threw the duvet aside and stripped out of his pajama shorts and changed into his combat trousers and boots before slipping on a fleece jacket and his Nighthawk into its holster on trouser belt.

He left Krieger in the room as he turned down the hall, jogging up the eight floors worth of stairs in under two minutes without barely breaking a sweat, something he couldn't have done three years ago.

He emerged onto to roof and was greeted by the chilly dark of the predawn sky. The blackness of night was just starting to give way to amber orange in the east, it wouldn't be long till daybreak. He stayed there a while, leaning against the rail and watching the sun begin to crest over the Tokyo skyline in beautiful silence. It was a beautiful sight, one he honestly thought he was never going to see again.

The door to the roof creaked open and a figure stepped into his peripheral vision. She had a Valkyrie like beauty about her. In the way she walked, the way she stood, and the way the dawn light seemingly illuminated her in an almost holy glow. And despite the less than sexy MultiCam fatigue trousers and a blue fleece pull over she wore, she was more beautiful to Kohta than Takagi had ever been.

"Funny," She said as she joined him and flicked her long raven colored hair out of her face and over her shoulder. "I always thought you liked to sleep in?"

"Good morning to you too, Skye." Kohta chuckled as she smiled. "And, to answer your question, I couldn't sleep. Had a bad dream."

"I heard." She said, concern flashing across her otherwise smiling face. Kohta sighed. He'd forgotten Skye's room was just next door to his.

"Who was it this time?"

"Hobbs."

"London?"

"Yeah."

"You know Kohta," She sighed, "there's no shame in asking for help…"

"No." Kohta sighed deeply, they'd had this conversation before. "If I go to the Doc's, they'll just tell me what I already know; that I've got PTSD and they'll take me off ops and I'll be as useless as a deaf man's headphones."

"Kohta," Skye said, placing a reassuring arm over his shoulder. "Despite what they taught you in sniper school, without your rifle you are far from useless." He smiled as but it vanished as she continued. "But you can't keep it bottled up forever. You need to see the Doc's."

"I know," Kohta replied, leaning his head on her shoulder. "Someday I will. But for now, I just want to watch the sunrise with my best friend."

Skye smiled and leaned her head against Kohta's, enjoying the peace of two young warriors watching the sunrise together.

…

Across the safezone within the walls of the imperial palace, Prime Minister Souichiro Takagi was in his office, preparing for the first meeting of the day.

He had summoned Colonel Lail and his senior contractor to discuss certain matters regarding some of the assignments that their contractors were being assigned… as well as a personal matter that concerned him.

"Kakka? You are brooding again."

Souichiro was snapped out of his thoughts by the voice and smiled. It was the voice of his former Sensei's daughter, personal bodyguard and chief retainer, Saeko Busujima.

"Indeed, I am, Busujima-san."

"Is there something wrong my lord?" Saeko asked, concern flashing across her pale face.

"No." Souichiro replied, "But it is something that if my daughter were to find out, the consequences could be disastrous."

Saeko raised an eyebrow. Many things could, and do set Saya off into a rage, something best avoided at all costs for the good of everyone within her immediate proximity. She waited for her Lord to explain the nature of the threat to their continued peace.

"I saw Hirano-san among the contractors."

Saeko's expression changed to one of surprise. "I didn't see him."

"He's lost a lot of weight since you saw him last," Souichiro admitted. "But his eyes were the same."

Before he or Saeko could discuss it further, there was a knock at the door and one of the secretaries entered.

"Prime minister, Colonel Lail and his associate are here to see you."

"Thank you, bring them in."

The secretary nodded and stepped aside, holding the door open for Colonel Lail and McCowan and inviting them inside.

"Gentlemen, thank you for coming." Takagi greeted, rising from his chair and offering the gentlemen a hand to shake.

"Prime Minister," Lail greeted in return, shaking the offered hand and nodding respectfully at Saeko. "Miss Busujima. This is my chief field contractor Staff Sergeant McCowan, former British SAS."

"Sir, Ma'am," McCowan replied, shaking the prime minister's hand and nodding respectfully to Saeko.

"Please have a seat, both of you." Souichiro gestured to the two comfortable leather arm chairs that sat on the other side of the desk from his own. "Cup of tea?"

"I wouldn't say no if there's one going, Sir," McCowan said with a polite smile as he sat down in the offered arm chair.

As Saeko poured two cups of warm green tea into china mugs, Takagi settled in his own chair and relaxed slightly. It was the first time that Lail or McCowan had been in the Prime Minister's office, and the latter was resisting the urge to make a _'Where's Moneypenny?'_ joke in his best Sean Connery accent.

"Thank you," Lail said, taking the offered steaming cup from Saeko and taking a sip. McCowan nodded his thanks and concentrated on not spilling the eastern brew, being used to his precious mug rather than a china cup.

"Let's get down to business then," Takagi said, accepting the fresh cup Saeko offered him. "You've had three days to acclimatize. How soon can your men be ready to work?"

"They're ready on your word, Prime Minister," Lail said. McCowan nodded in agreement.

"Been ready since boots hit the tarmac, sir." The Scot added. "They've been itching to get to it."

"That's good to hear." Takagi nodded. "We've been receiving reports from some our settlements. There have been reports from our settlements of increased rebel activity around Suruga Bay. I would like to see it taken care of sooner rather than later."

"Just point us at 'em, Sir," McCowan said, placing his empty cup of tea down. "If this lot are a going around pillaging, raping and killing without a permit, we'll grass the fuckers before you can say 'Oi, Suzy!'"

Takagi smiled subtly as Lail shot his compatriot a sidewise glance. "While I appreciate that Staff Sergeant," He said, "At the moment we do not know where these rebels are operating from. And so far, they've done nothing more than rob a few of our people, nothing that can's be forgiven given the times."

Lail nodded, processing the information. "We could put a team into the area." He suggested. "Have them scout around for where these guys call home and report back. Then they can train up the locals while we decide what to do."

"There is a supply convoy leaving for the Matsuzaki settlement tomorrow morning," Takagi stated. "I'm sure the SDF would be accommodating in transporting a team down there."

"I'll assemble a Tac-team and have' em make ready," McCowan said. He was halfway out of pushing himself out of his chair when Lord Takagi spoke again.

"There is one more thing I'd ask of you," He added. "A personal matter."

Lail and McCowan shared a look and McCowan, both wondering what they were about to get hit with. McCowan sank back into his seat, bracing himself for whatever was about to hit him.

"Kohta Hirano," Takagi stated, looking them both in the eye. "What do you make of him?"

It wasn't what either of them was expecting, but McCowan smiled. "Crack shot, mean operator," He paused. "And a good lad. One of the best I've seen in a long time actually. Do you know him?"

Takagi and Saeko shared a look as if trying to work out what to say before Saeko cleared her throat and spoke for the first time since offering tea.

"Hirano-san and I were part of a group of survivors from our high school. A group which included among others, Takagi-Kakka's daughter Saya." She said cautiously. Lail and McCowan nodded, they'd both heard parts of the story but not all of it, and not recently.

"Over time, Hirano and Takagi-san became… close." She continued. "When Hirano-san left, He and Saya had a… disagreement. They didn't part on good terms."

"My daughter works in our supply and planning ministry here in the Tokyo settlement," Takagi added. "It may be best for everyone if she and Hirano did not cross paths."

"I'll assign Kohta to the tac-team we're sending out tomorrow. That'll keep him out of town for a week or so." McCowan said. He made a mental note to ask Kohta about it later. If he could be in a position to compromise their relationship with the Japanese government because of a fight with his ex-girlfriend, they needed to know about it.

"Thank you, gentlemen. For everything." Takagi said. He stood and offered a hand to the two contractors, who in turn stood, shook his offered hand and departed for the door. After they left, Saeko turned to Lord Takagi.

"Do you think it's really best to keep them apart?" Saeko asked. "To not tell her he's here?"

"For now." He replied, shuffling some papers on his desk. "It'd be better for both of them to stay apart."

Saeko frowned slightly at the Prime Minister's back.

She wasn't convinced.

* * *

Kakka - Japanease Honouriffic for Prime Minister.

 **This is the last of the 'introduction' chapters. From here on out, it's on.**

 **Please Review/Follow/Favourite. Constructive critisism and points are always welcome as reviews or PMs.  
**

 **Jango**


	3. Chapter 3

_Ronin_

 _Chapter Three_

"Kohta."

He opened his eyes to an elder contractor standing over him with a wiry blond beard and eyes obscured by wraparound sunglasses.

"Break's over man." The man said, offering Kohta a hand. "time to go."

Kohta took the man's hand and was hauled to his feet. "Cheers Tex."

Tex flashed his cheeky smile before heading off to finish his preparations for deployment.

He, Kohta and four other contractors had been assigned to a joint convoy escort duty with six JSDF soldiers out to the Matsuzaki settlement. After that, they were to recon the area for the rebels operating in the area, report back, and await further orders.

It was a small supply convoy; Two Humvees each armed with a turret mounted fifty cal machine gun, a Type 73 heavy truck loaded with essential supplies for the Matsuzaki settlement (mainly spare boat and generator parts), and finally, a civilian fuel tanker loaded with 10,000 Litres of diesel to keep the place going.

The vehicles, as well as the contractors, were all gathered in the underground car park beneath the Jade Traveller Hotel. From there they'd leave the safezone then head South West on the Tomei Expressway before turning off and heading down Route 136 almost the whole way to the settlement. A journey just over 190 kilometers and around three hours on the cleared and established route.

'Assuming we don't run into trouble on the way.' Kohta though, and the likelihood of that was, in his opinion, close to zero. Something the other contractors attached to the mission seemed to agree.

Tex certainly seemed to, judging by the way the career contractor formerly of Blackwater PMC was pouring over the road map, looking for any areas of potential ambush and routes around them.

Dino stood next to him. The former Australian naval special forces combat diver was near magical when it came to explosives, and probably the luckiest man Kohta had ever met. He always left the bar with a beautiful young woman on his arm. Kohta put it down to the accent.

A short way away from them, Slater was sharpening the edge on his medical scissors. The ongoing joke being that they wouldn't let the former firefighter paramedic, have proper ones, so he had to make do with sharpened safety scissors. Still, though let him carry an M4 and a breaching axe.

Mary sat silently nearby, going over her SCAR H with the care and precision a surgeon would his tools before a heart transplant. Her blood red hair, emerald green eyes and pale skin, were all hidden beneath a large Bonnie hat and dark green scrim net scarf.

"Hey, has anyone seen Skye?" Kohta asked, looking around for his missing friend. "Or the SDF for that matter?"

"Oh, your little girlfriend went to go find them," Tex said before looking up from the map with a smirk. "You miss her already?"

"She's not my girlfriend," Kohta replied flatly, ignoring the smiles that were spreading across the three elder contractors faces.

"Really?" Tex asked, "I would 'a thought after all those midnight rendezvous you two would be goin' like jackrabbits."

"Uh-huh, keep telling yourself that Tex," Kohta replied as he climbed up on the lead Humvee and checked the .50 Cal.

They had a good mix of skills and experience on this op. Three vets, three rookies. A jack of all trades, a bomb tech, a breacher, a medic and two scout snipers/marksmen. Assuming all went well, it should be a walk in the park… assuming.

"Well, look who finally decided to turn up," Dino said. Kohta first looked up from the machine gun and then over to where he and everyone else was looking.

Skye had returned leading six SDF soldiers towards them.

For a moment, they looked kind of alien to Kohta. They were uniformed, all wearing the same type III camo, helmets, ancient Iraq war era body armour and they all carried identical type 89 assault rifles. Most of the contractors used their own kit, survivors worked with whatever they could get their hands on and even national armies tended to use a mix of kit from whatever was available and suited to the task at hand.

"Howdy." Tex greeted happily with a tip of his cap to the Japanese soldiers. "You boys coming on this little road trip then?"

"Hai," the leading SDF soldier said. He was an elder looking soldier whose face had just started to wrinkle in places, but still carried himself like a man twenty years younger. He was accompanied by a younger soldier with tanned skin and deep brown eyes. "I'm Sergeant Major Fujita Tsuneo. This is Leading Private Takashi Komuro, my second in command."

' _Takashi_ _Komuro_ _?'_ Kohta mentally asked, unsure if he'd heard the man right.

"I'm Tex. Good to meet you." Tex replied, shaking the Sergeant Major and Leading Private's hands before turning to the other contractors. "You've met Skye. That's Dino, Slater, Kohta and Mary."

"Kohta?" Takashi asked, turning towards the man Tex had indicated as Kohta. "Kohta Hirano?"

'So, it is Takashi.' Kohta thought. The car park was silent as the two old friends and survivors looked at each other. They'd parted on semi good terms when Kohta left Japan. But he was in no doubt that Takashi would've heard Saya's one-sided story about him abandoning her, and would stand by his pink haired friend.

Kohta dismounted, securing the .50 before dropping into the Humvee and climbing out the rear passenger door feet first, before striding out towards Takashi. He had to stop himself grinning when he saw surprise flash across Takashi's face.

Kohta was no longer the short fat otaku that had left Japan…that Takashi could push around and overrule. Now he was easily as tall as Takashi and even broader in the shoulders, and owing to years of constant brutal combat and elite training, he now boasted a physique that would gain him entry into any special forces or elite military community.

Kohta stopped just short of his former colleague, meeting his stare with confidence that the old Kohta had seldom shown.

"Komuro." Kohta nodded at him.

"Hirano," Takashi replied a moment later with his own nod. "It's been a while."

"Four years." Kohta agreed. He paused. "How is everyone?"

"They're ok, mostly," Takashi replied. Kohta frowned at that so Takashi explained. "We lost Miyamoto-sama and Takagi-sama to a flu last year. Rei and Saya didn't take it well…" He paused at the mention of Saya's name, watching for Kohta's reactions.

"You hurt her, Kohta," he whispered. "You hurt her bad."

"She wasn't the only one who got hurt, Takashi," Kohta whispered back slowly before turning back towards the Humvee. "She's wasn't the only one…"

Kohta headed back to collect the last of his kit in silence while everyone watched.

"Alright," Tex said out loud, breaking the uncomfortable silence. "Two vehicles per team. Two in the trucks, four in the Humvees. Let's keep the fifty cals manned at all times, do this right and come home safe. Anything to add Sergeant Major?"

Tsuneo shook his head. "No, let's go."

"Alright, mount up!"

The two groups dispersed and headed towards their stacked kit; grabbing rifles, clipping on body armour, and zipping up daysacks before converging on their assigned vehicles.

"Slater, Skye take the truck," Tex ordered as he racked the slide on his M4. "Everyone else, in the aft Humvee." He stepped closer to Kohta as the young sniper as he rounded the Humvee towards the back door.

"What was that about?"

"An old friend," Kohta replied while checking over his SCAR. "And a long story."

"Wanna talk about it?"

"Not really." Kohta walked past him to the Humvee's rear passenger door. "But I better."

"Alright, wait till we're on the move."

"Copy." Kohta opened the door and held it open. He whistled over towards the wall. "Krieger. Up!"

The German Shepard ran across the car park and leapt into the Humvee and lay down on the rear driver side seat. Mary followed and manned the fifty Cal before Kohta got in the back and shut the door. Dino jumped in the driver's seat while Tex took the passenger/ navigator position before snatching the headset for the CB radio off the cradle, keying it up before he even had it to his ear.

"This is Humvee 2, ready to roll out."

There was a click. Then the other trucks and Humvees sounded off one at a time that they were ready to move. A minute later they were rolling, the Humvee's and trucks growled out of the underground car park and out onto the street, keeping slow and quiet to prevent the engine echoing, and running over any pedestrians.

The convoy cruised out the settlement's southern gate. The SDF Humvee up front, followed by the two trucks with the Contractor Humvee in the rear. The windows were rolled down, allowing a cool breeze through the vehicle as well as allowing them to rest their weapons on the frames, giving them an immediate all round three sixty firing arc in the event of ambush.

"Alright Kohta," Tex said bringing up the suspended topic from earlier. "You said you had a long story to share?"

"Yeah, what was that mate?" Dino asked. "You know that guy? And who was that 'Saya' chick you mentioned?"

Kohta sighed. It was a long story. Not one he liked telling.

"Yeah, I knew him," Kohta replied, beginning his story. "His name is Takashi Komuro. He was in my class in high school."

He paused and smiled before continuing, high school seemed like a lifetime ago.

"He, I and a group of others fought our way out of our school, around town. Hell, we even managed to salvage some guns and find a few of our parents before we got rescued by the SDF."

"And this 'Saya' chick?" Tex asked. "Where does she fit into this?"

"Saya Takagi... was a classmate," Kohta said, picking his words carefully. "We were… close, during the outbreak."

"Takagi!" Tex replied astounded, turning to face Kohta in the back seat. "As in _prime minister_ Takagi?!"

"Yeah, his daughter."

"Holy shit! You were banging the _Prime minister's_ daughter?" Tex laughed, as did Dino. But Kohta wasn't laughing, in fact, he looked grim at the suggestion.

"No. I wasn't." Kohta replied shortly. Dino and Tex took note of his tone and stopped laughing. It was something he clearly wasn't proud of, whatever _it_ was.

"Shortly after we got to the Takagi mansion," Kohta continued with a sigh. "we were attacked and overrun by the undead, just after. During the battle, when we were about to leave, Lord Takagi asked me to protect his daughter. Which I did until we were rescued by the SDF.

"When we were rescued, we had our guns taken away and were put in with the other civilians. A few days later, the SDF came and asked for volunteers to help fill in their casualties. The main fighters and leader from our group; Takashi, Saeko and me, volunteered to enlist. But they turned me down because of my weight."

Tex and Dino nodded, they'd been among the operators who'd help Kohta chin down and dubbed him with the war name 'The Sumo', which Kohta tolerated with some level annoyance.

"After that, I was in a bad place." Kohta continued. "Shooting walkers was about all I was good for. It was about then when Colonel Lail found me and offered me a PMC job. At first, I was going to say no so I could stay and protect Saya however I could. But when she reunited with her father and he took her back in… I knew that he could protect her better than I ever could. And if I left Japan and went with Lail, maybe I could help others as I had helped her."

"I'm guessing she didn't take it well?" Tex ventured. Kohta nodded sadly.

"'Fine! Go! Run away and be a killer for hire if it'll make you happy you stupid, fat otaku!' were her exact words." He said sadly. "I parted on better terms with the others. Takashi, Rei and Saeko understood. Alice was sad to see me go. But I could never bring myself face Saya or her parents again."

He paused and looked down ashamed.

"Saya's mother died last year from flu," he said "and I regret that I didn't get the chance to say goodbye. Now or then."

The Humvee was silent for a while, the only noise coming from the engine and the occasional whine of the turret traverse as Mary panned the .50 around.

"Kohta, I ain't no expert on this Saya chick," Dino said after a while, glancing back at his young colleague through the rear-view mirror. "But I do know soldiers, and I know civvies. We don't expect them to understand why we do what we do, why we put ourselves in harm's way for people we've never met. But if she can't accept that you're willing to fight for those who can't fight for themselves, she ain't worth it. Coz we sure as hell ain't no 'killers for hire', and anyone who thinks you are, ain't fucking worth it and needs their head checked, mate."

"Thanks, Dino," Kohta replied. Dino always had sucked at giving speeches, and despite how he felt about her, he was right about Saya. If she couldn't accept that why he did what he did… then maybe she wasn't ever right for him.

…

The Tokyo city sprawl eventually gave way to the coast road that they would follow to the settlement. Kohta had taken over the .50 from Mary a while ago, and more or less remained silent since his story, chewing over a few questions in his mind. Had he been right to leave Japan? Was Saya worth leaving? Had she ever been?

Kohta pushed the thoughts aside and went back to work, scanning the .50 around and watching for targets. A short while ago the coast road started to climb along the cliffs, which meant they weren't far off now. But they were running late. They'd been late starting out and there were some new abandoned vehicles had appeared on the previously cleared highway, but while they were running late, they would just after darkness enveloped the entirety of the sky.

Still though, Kohta couldn't help but shake the feeling that something was off. They'd made contact with the settlement to inform them of their late arrival with no problems, but nothing in the two hours since. And that made Kohta edgy.

"Hey Tex," Kohta asked, crouching half into the Humvee so he could Nighthawk. "Any word from the settlement?"

"Nada," Tex replied. "Could be they ran outta gas though. Boss did say they were running low."

"What do we know about this place?" Dino asked.

"Small fishing community." Mary answered plainly. "contains roughly two-thirds of the Japanese fishing fleet. Home to fishermen, their families, and a small group of Buddhist monks."

"Monks?" Kohta asked sceptically. "Really?"

"Apparently," Mary replied, equally as sceptical.

The convoy rounded a corner on a headland, and the scene that greeted them was stunning.

A wide, calm moonlit bay of black/blue water lapping against the dark shore. At this distance, the settlement' buildings were just a series of black on black shapes behind barricades built from abandoned cars, vans and buses reinforced with welded steel plates. They could even make out a few fishing boats tied to the wharf, bobbing at the ends of their mooring lines on the moon and star lit ocean.

"Something's wrong." Kohta realized, he dropped back into the Humvee. "Stop the convoy."

"What?" Tex looked at him as if Kohta had turned crazy.

"Stop the convoy," Kohta repeated, grabbing a pair of thermal binoculars from their storage pouch and jumping up back to the turret. He powered them on and zoomed in on the settlement at maximum magnification as the Humvee and the truck in front came to a stop, their engines settling down to silence with a series of cooling pops and clicks.

"Ok, you wanna tell us what that was all about?" Dino called up to Kohta. Kohta didn't reply immediately, he was busy scanning the settlement, looking for any splashes of red or white against the bluey green back ground.

'I was right.' Kohta though. "There's no one there."

"Come again?" Tex queried. Tsuneo, Takashi and a few other SDF soldiers started to gather around the Humvee, wanting a reason for their stoppage.

"The settlement." Kohta clarified. "There's no one there. Thermal's not picking up anything, living or dead."

"That can't be right, Kohta," Takashi said. "We spoke to them only two hours ago and everything was fine. Maybe they've just turned in for the night."

Kohta shook his head. "They know we're coming, so at least _someone_ would be up to open the gate." He then lowered the thermal binos and handed them to Tsuneo so he could take his own look. "And besides, this is a fishing community. A port. So why hasn't anyone turned on any lights to guide the boats in? Not even a beacon fire?"

"Maybe they're out of power and can't," Mary suggested. "Maybe all the boats are in."

"No, he's right," Tsuneo replied. "I only count two boats in the harbour. And I'm not seeing anyone on thermals."

"Maybe the biters got in." One of the SDF soldiers suggested.

Kohta shook his head. "They'd still show up on thermals."

"How?" Takashi accused. "They're dead. They don't make anybody heat."

"True, but they still absorb heat during the day," Kohta explained. "They still retain enough heat to show up for an hour or two after dusk."

Kohta had to pretend to scratch his nose to hide a smirk at Takashi's face when he realized he'd never had thought of that. After all, who didn't like to see their friends fall short every once in a while.

Beginning to accept that maybe something was wrong, they tried to raise the settlement on the radio again, to no avail. After a few more minutes of scanning via thermal, night vision and conventional binoculars, they agreed something wasn't right.

"We should send out a recon team," Tsuneo suggested. "Make sure we're not walking into an ambush."

"Right." Tex nodded before turning to his contractors. "Kohta, Mary. With me, and bring Krieger."

The two young contractors jumped to action, kicking the door open and flying out of the Humvee, followed by an equally active German Shepard, although mainly because he needed to relieve himself, which he did against the Humvee's tire. Tsuneo turned to Takashi while the contractors did a quick weapons check.

"Komuro, take Yagami and Suoh and go with them." He instructed. "I'll stay with the convoy."

Takashi nodded and ran off back up the convoy to fetch the two requested Japanese soldiers. Tex leaned in on Kohta as he did up Krieger's leash.

"You going to be ok with him?" Tex whispered, nodding in the direction where Takashi had run off to.

"It's fine Tex." Kohta nodded. He trusted Takashi to put any personal feelings aside.

"Alright then," Tex replied. He tapped Mary on the shoulder. "Let's go."

Tex, Mary and Kohta headed off with Kohta on point with Krieger leading the way, his sensitive nose scanning for anything that smelt off or dead.

Takashi and his two soldiers fell in behind the contractors. They were still roughly a kilometre from the settlement so retreated into the forest to the left of the road, the cover of the trees would shelter their advance from any prying eyes that were out there.

As they moved from tree to tree, they were accompanied by an intermittent low growl. Krieger could smell the infected nearby. Every few meters they would stop and take a knee, and the canine would turn and growl in a certain direction, his way of giving a target bearing and distance which Kohta would relay to the other shooters in the team.

"Infected, One O'clock."

"Got him," Tex reported. _Kapfft!_ "Neutralised."

"Another one, Ten O'clock," Mary whispered _Kapfft!_ "Neutralised."

"Clear," Kohta reported. Krieger's growling had quietened, but it was still there. There were still a few infected around, but they were further off. They were ok to move for now, but the infected would be back, they never came in small numbers. They made their way forward in a slow half crouch, eventually coming to the edge of the treeline, facing a line of abandoned structures. Takashi moved forward so he was close enough to be heard by Kohta and Tex.

"The settlement's front gate is two blocks past these streets." He said. "The debris has been cleared on the road between those buildings so we can get the convoy through."

"You been here before?" Tex asked.

Takashi nodded. "A few times. Small temple, basic infirmary, that sort of thing."

"Ok." Tex paused to think for a moment. "What kind of security do they have?"

"Normally, someone on the gate and someone on the radio," Takashi said. Kohta and Tex shared a look.

"That's it?" Kohta asked astounded. "One guy on watch and another with ears on?"

Takashi shrugged. "There's only one entrance by land. Besides, this is a tier III settlement, a low priority target."

Kohta sighed and shook his head despairingly. Japan clearly needed to do a reassessment of what did and did not pass for a 'low priority target', but that was above Takashi's pay grade, no point getting mad at him about it.

"Alright… Komuro, was it?" Tex asked. Takashi nodded. "You take point with Kohta and Krieger Let's move.

The group moved out with Kohta and Krieger in front, and Takashi walking beside them and the rest of the squad following behind. The group descended down an embankment that separated the road from forest and finally rejoined the road. They spread out and moving quickly, fully aware that there was not enough cover and a multitude of potential ambush spots around. They cover either side of the road. Nothing met them.

They advanced, buildings surrounding them on all sides. Few were ruined; most had been stripped of their owners by the evacuation efforts when the outbreaks first started. But there were broken in doors and some bullet holes in the walls, windows smashed on food stores and buildings that might provide anything a survivor might need. Most of the vehicles were gone though, dragged away to be used in the settlement's barricades.

There were a few corpses strewn around. The one nearest to them had been cut down by a blade of some kind; maybe a fire axe or a sword, and further out there were some others who'd been dropped by gunfire. The bodies were almost skeletal in parts after years of exposure to elements without shelter, others were decayed, pulped and rotten, enough that it nearly made Kohta gag.

"Wonder where they were going." Kohta pondered.

Mary shrugged. "Anywhere there's food," she replied while adding a look of disgust at the fallen corpses.

"Quiet," Tex replied.

After a few more minutes of stealthy advance, they could see the settlement's perimeter wall: A ten-foot-tall tower of piled cars with scrap steel welded and bolted over it to cover the gaps. The front gate was visible too, which looked like someone had installed an industrial sized garage door and frame with a gantry built over the top. There was no one on the gantry keeping watch and no signs or sounds of life on the far side of the wall.

"Where is everyone?" Takashi whispered, but his voice seemed to carry and fill the air. "Quiet, isn't it?"

Kohta looked at him, "Want me to say it's too quiet?"

"You don't need to," Takashi replied.

"Alright," Tex cut in. "Kohta, take Komuro up there and get over the wall, see if anyone's really home. Then get the gate open and we sweep and clear the place. Don't wanna be out here long after dark."

"Roger that," Kohta said. "Krieger, stay. Takashi, come."

Krieger whined and Takashi snorted. Kohta needed his eyes checked, or did he really look like Zeke?

The two young men pushed up from the rest of the group. Kohta knew there was no one out there. So why was his gut telling him he was walking into a trap? They were unchallenged as they approached the gate. There really was no one there. Kohta tried the gate. As expected, it was locked.

"Up and over?" Kohta suggested. Takashi looked at him dubiously.

"Hirano, I'll never be able to lift or boost you up there." He said. It was a good point. Even though he'd lost a lot of weight, Kohta still must have outweighed Takashi by Forty pounds before adding his kit on, the only difference was that it was now all muscle, not fat.

Kohta looked around at the wall of cars and studied it, he smiled. "You won't have too." He walked over to the edge of the first car, studying it for a moment while Takashi looked at him confused.

Whoever designed and built this wall was smart. They'd stacked the cars they'd scavenged two high one on top of each other and then welded or otherwise fixed plates of steel and scrap metal over every conceivable way that an infected zombie could get past it. No way through or under. But, there were a few handholds that, if you were a thinking person with full motor control and hand eye coordination, could be scaled.

Kohta slung his rifle and found a hand and foothold and pushed up, scaling the wrecked cars as easily as he would a climbing wall.

"Hirano, are you nuts?!" Takashi hissed, but Kohta ignored him. Not out of disrespect, but so he could do the task without stopping to think about the consequences if he made a mistake. He knew climbing on a stack of rusty cars was dangerous; one wrong move and he could fall and twist his ankle, or he could cut his hand open on some jagged metal and catch tetanus or something else nasty. But courage was two-thirds bravery, one-third ignorance; if you don't think about the dangers, you won't encounter them.

Kohta reached the top of the wall and crouched on top of the wrecked car, drawing his Nighthawk and scanning the settlement while trying to keep his balance.

There were no infected in the perimeter that he could see, no moving corpses in the darkness. But then again, there were no signs of life what so ever. The place was a ghost town.

Kohta carefully stood, feeling the pile of cars creak and sway slightly under him, even the metal of the bonnet underfoot pop as his weight dented the elder metal. Carefully avoiding any glass that might shatter, he made his way down the car and climbed onto the sturdier (and less likely to collapse at any moment) gantry. Pausing only to switch from his Nighthawk back to his SCAR, Kohta headed down to find a way to get the gate open.

Kohta's sense of unease grew. The sun had since disappeared below the horizon and the last vestiges of light were just about to follow it, and there were still no lights on in any of the windows from the settlement. Any hope Kohta had that anyone was still alive here, had just about evaporated. But nothing had made any moves or attacked him yet which was surprising, and also deeply, deeply worrying.

Kohta found the chain that opened the gate and started pulling the chain through the pulley. The gate opening with a series of rattles, clangs and a thunderous roar and Takashi moved inside, his weapon raised and scanning for any signs of movement in the series of buildings that littered the settlement.

"Gate's open Tex," Kohta announced into his radio. "Place is quiet, come on in."

Tex and the others broke cover and sprinted towards the settlement. They crossed through the gate and set up a defensive perimeter while Kohta and Takashi closed the gate behind them.

They waited. No one got shot and no living or dead came out to meet them. Suddenly Kohta's order to stop the convoy didn't seem so crazy, especially when there was a chorus of soft _snick_ s as the various soldiers and contractors eased their weapon's safeties off, liking the atmosphere no more than Kohta did.

"Comm check." Tex's voice overlapped with its own echo in Kohta's ear piece, as his own voice melded in with the chorus of voices replying " _Check_ " as each member of the party sounded off.

After a tense few moments of watching the darkened buildings, which continued to show no signs of life, Tex detailed the party to split off into pairs. The two SDF soldiers that had been detailed to accompany Takashi melted away in silence off towards one of the larger building groups while Tex and Mary headed off in another, leaving Takashi, Kohta and Krieger alone.

"Alright, where to?" Asked Kohta. Takashi had been here before and knew the place and the people, a fact Kohta was going to take maximum advantage of. He could spot anything out of place that Kohta might miss, which could well be the difference between walking into an ambush or avoiding one.

"Temple," Takashi said. Puzzlement flashed across Kohta's face for a moment, before he realized. Where would a bunch of lightly/ unarmed monks and fishermen go in time of crisis within their walls? The sanctuary of consecrated ground, trusting their safety and deliverance to the gods. A dubious concept in Kohta's experience, but then again, he always felt the kami had enough on their hands trying to keep the balance of the world in order, so he tended to take care of himself while more pious souls were now wandering as the living dead or clogging up the cemeteries.

The two stepped off Kohta falling into line behind Takashi and Krieger following his master close behind. They naturally kept to the side of the road that was in deepest shadow as they picked their way between the buildings.

" _Cafeteria's clear."_ One of the SDF soldiers reported. _"Someone was here recently though. There are still dishes waiting to be washed."_

"Is it tidy?" Kohta asked.

" _How do you mean?"_

" _He means, does it look like they were interrupted in the middle of dinner? Or did they get time to have a cup of coffee_ _afterward_ _?"_ Tex clarified.

" _Oh, then it's tidy._ " The soldier replied. _"Places laid and everything."_

"Then they weren't intending to go anywhere." Takashi glanced over his shoulder at Kohta. His face told him that he didn't like it any more than he did. "So where did they go?"

" _They didn't get sick,"_ Mary reported. _"Infirmary's clear. Standby, I'll check the patient records_."

"How many are normally in the infirmary?" Kohta asked Takashi.

Takashi shrugged. "Two or three. More if something bad's happened here or in one of the other towns."

"Other towns?" Kohta asked. This was supposed to be the only settlement for miles. Takashi nodded.

"There are a few non-government aligned settlement's around here." He explained. "Most are non-hostile, in fact, we trade with quite a few of them. They mainly just don't want to be part of the government or haven't been amalgamated yet. But this is the only one for about a hundred kilometres with a decent medical facility. Shizuka-Sensei helped set it up."

" _The record's show three patients admitted,_ " Mary reported over the radio. _"Two fishermen who caught hypothermia after their boat capsized, and a farmer with a fever case. So, where are they?_ "

Kohta's stomach continued to sink as he and Takashi arrived at the temple, a converted Christian church on the seafront with a Kami gate hung over the door next to Jesus Christ nailed to the cross. As they got closer, Krieger started to growl, just like he did with the undead.

"Guys," Kohta spoke into the comm with a mild sense of urgency. "Krieger's got something. Rally on the temple."

Kohta and Takashi couldn't hear any sounds of undead from inside the temple, but something had set Krieger off. And whatever it was, Kohta would feel better having as much back up as possible when they went in to find out what it was.

"Why does this remind me of the east police station?" Takashi asked, keeping his type 89 pointed at the door.

"Because Zeke was growling at the door of that place too," Kohta replied. He then paused for a moment. "How is Zeke anyway? He still around?"

Takashi laughed. "Yeah, Zeke's still alive and kicking. He lives with Alice, Rika and Shizuka-sensei."

'Rika?' Kohta thought. 'Isn't that the woman who owned the apartment with the guns?'

Further thoughts on the matter were cut short when the rest of the group arrived, jogging up to the temple and trained their weapons on the door.

"What we got?" Asked Tex.

"Not sure," Kohta replied. "No sound from inside but something's got Krieger spooked."

One of the SDF soldiers scoffed. "It's a dumb dog. It gets spooked by his own shadow." Kohta wheeled on the man and got close to him, far closer than the man would have liked.

"That ' _dumb dog_ '," Kohta snarled. "is a fully trained zed hunter and attack dog. _He_ could rip your throat out before you could even turn that gun towards him." Kohta then leant in and whispered in the man's ear.

"He's also very sensitive. I suggest you apologise."

The soldier looked down to see the snarling face of a German shepherd, bearing his serrated titanium canines that could rip open kevlar as easily as hands tearing a piece of cloth. A cold sweat ran down the soldier's neck.

"Ok." He said, his voice wavering. "I'm sorry."

Kohta shook his head. "Don't tell me." He pointed to Krieger. "Tell him."

"Kohta, that's enough. Back off." Tex cut in before the man could say any more. Obedient to his instructions and turned away, retaking up his position covering the temple doors. Krieger barked loudly at the soldier before following Kohta back to his breech position.

"Alright," Tex announced quietly. He gestured to the two SDF soldiers. "Open the doors, everyone else, firing line."

Takashi, Kohta, Tex and Mary took up position, their rifles pointed at the door like a firing squad. On Tex's nod, the two soldiers opened the doors. Nothing happened. Nothing emerged from the darkness except the smell of defecation and decay that made everyone fight to keep their last meals in place.

"Smells a bit." Kohta gagged, tears forming in his eyes out of reflex. Tex nodded, his left hand floated free of his rifle and motioned the gun group forward. Weapon lights flicked on and they headed in, illuminating the room with cones of light. The air was musky with the stench of the foulest kind. They all stopped short when they shone their lights on the back wall.

"My God." Mary murmured.

"Fucking hell." Agreed Kohta.

They'd found them. The remains of the couple of dozen people who lived here, riddled with bullet holes piled up against the wall, which itself was marred with blood trails, brain matter and strings of bullet holes. One of the Japanese soldiers vomited, Kohta felt like it but resisted the urge, rage filling him as he examined the scene.

"They were herded in here and lined up against the wall," he said solemnly. "Then they opened up on full auto. They had no chance."

"But why though?" Takashi snarled, enraged by the death and desecration. "What was the point."

"Maybe it was raiders." Mary supplied. "A well-stocked settlement like this would be a tempting target."

"It wasn't raiders," Kohta said, moving closer towards the altar.

"What makes you think that?" Takashi asked. Kohta nodded upwards and shone his weapon light at it. Everyone looked up at the large cross and found it had been vandalized. Mud or some less wholesome substance had been caked to it, and the walls around it were fairly shot up.

Tex turned to Takashi. "Which of the rebel groups goes in for this kind of thing?"

"None of them." He replied shaking his head sadly. "They hit military and government targets. These people were just fishermen and monks. No threat to anyone."

Tex nodded and headed outside, regaining the sweeter air outside as he got on his ear piece to the convoy, apprising them of the situation, as well as ordering them to patch him through to Tokyo HQ with their more powerful radio set. Takashi meanwhile showed some initiative and sent his two subordinates to guard the front gate, to keep an eye out for any unwelcome surprises.

"We're to sit tight," Tex announced when he was finished. "Bring the convoy inside the walls for the night and await reinforcements. Colonel Lail's ordered a drone flyover at dawn."

"Makes sense." Kohta nodded. "But whoever did that's probably long gone."

"I don't think so," Mary said, finally emerging from the church. "Some of those bodies are still warm. Given the time of year and what they're wearing, this can't have happened more than a few hours ago."

Takashi looked like he was about to argue, but Tex interceded him.

"We did hear from someone two hours ago and everything was normal." He said. "It could've been one of them."

"Or it could've been one of the attackers giving us an all clear." Kohta pointed out. Tex nodded grimly.

"There's something else," Mary added. She looked uncomfortable for some reason.

"The bodies… there are no women."

* * *

 **Please review, favorite and follow for continued updates. Constructive criticism and points are welcome as reviews or PMs.**

 **Jango**


	4. Chapter 4

_Ronin_

 _Chapter Four_

Mary was wrong, there were women among the dead. They found a girl no older than eight in the arms of her father, and a pair of women old enough to be grandmothers. But none of child bearing age. Which, as McCowan so eloquently put it; "Put a whole new spin on things."

The entire debriefing room was grim. No one said anything. The only sounds were the occasional whine or grumble from Krieger, and the whistle of sharpened metal slicing the air as Dino twirled a particularly sharp combat knife between his fingers.

The door to the meeting room opened, and Prime Minister Takagi entered with Saeko. The SDF soldiers snapped to attention and saluted. The contractors simply nodded respectfully and Dino put away his knife. They weren't going to stand on ceremony if they didn't have to after what they'd seen.

"Gentlemen, ladies," Takagi greeted, standing the SDF at ease before taking his seat at the head of the briefing table. "What do we know?"

"At some time during yesterday evening, the Matsuzaki settlement was attacked." Stated Colonel Lail, surmising the report the contractors had given. "Twenty-six of the inhabitants were executed, and a further eighteen are unaccounted for. All women and between the ages of Thirty-Eight and Twelve."

Takagi sighed in both remorse and anger. "I'm sure I don't need to tell you we will not let this stand. Recommendations?"

"Track'em. Find'em. Kill'em," Kohta stated bluntly.

"Damn straight," Tex murmured with an approving nod. Saeko and Takashi looked at Kohta with surprise; he'd had never been this eager for a fight against other humans before. Lord Takagi's eyebrow climbed his forehead as he regarded the young man.

"And how do you suggest we go about doing that, Hirano-san?"

Kohta looked Saya's father in the eyes. He was testing him, he could tell. Kohta smiled, he would not be found wanting.

"We start by examining what we know so far, Kakka." Hirano began. "We know the settlement was attacked and the inhabitants either kidnapped or executed. But I also noticed that, aside from a warning shot, there were no signs of a fight. The walls were intact and the gate was locked from the inside with no signs that someone tried to force it open. Which means they came from the water, which means they would've been easy to spot. So, it's likely that the inhabitants knew their attackers, maybe through trade with none- government aligned towns."

Takagi mulled over what Kohta thoughtfully. "Solid reasoning Hirano-san. Although it doesn't give us a motive for this attack."

"Prime Minister, I think I have something." Mary said, speaking up for the first time since they'd gotten back. Kohta was worried about her, she normally wasn't this quiet, even by scout sniper standards.

"Please," Takagi invited. "Miss...?"

"Scott, Sir. Mary Scott," Mary leaned forward and looked around the group to ensure she had their attention.

"I think this attack may have been religiously motivated," she announced, surprising a few people. "Firstly, I noticed that the executions were made in a temple, a place of worship."

"That doesn't mean that religion was behind this attack, Miss Travis," Takagi countered. Mary nodded.

"True, sir. But if not, why would the attackers take the time to deface the Christian altar, but leave the Shinto shrine unbesmirched?" she countered. "And furthermore, why bother rounding up the survivors into the temple just to execute them? If they took the place by surprise, people would've been all over the place, why not just shoot them where they found them?"

"It certainly is possible, Sir," Tex added, supporting his teenage scout. "I've seen this kind of thing before. Fits the standard religious wacko MO."

"Hmmm," Takagi rumbled, considering what the young woman and Texan had said. "Thank you all, for your accounts and insights. I shall heed your advice and consult with my advisors further. If and when anything is to be done, you will be briefed. For now, Colonel, Sergeant Major, I think these men and women have earned some downtime."

"I agree, Sir. A night off may be in order," Lail nodded. He faced his contractors. "You're all off duty till zero-six-hundred. Dismissed."

Master Sergeant Tsuneo repeated the instruction in Japanese as the contractors rose from their seats heading for the door, some of them debating whether to spend the night drinking, chilling out or working out.

As they were walking down the corridor towards the building exit, Slater muttered. "Damn politicians, never got the balls to act."

Kohta heard him and jogged up to catch him. "Hey, Slater!" he called, stopping short of the elder contractor. "I heard that. Don't talk about Takagi-dono like that."

Slater sighed, like a teacher about to lecture a disobedient student. "Look, listen kid, I've…"

"No. You listen, Slater," Kohta interrupted. "I've known Takagi-dono far longer than you. I was there at his mansion during the outbreak. I watched him execute his zombified best friend in front of a crowd of people to convince them the only way to survive was to fight. And when _they_ got in, I saw him lead the charge into the horde with nothing but a samurai sword and his gun toting wife.

"He might be a politician. But he is also decisive, and certainly no coward. He won't set us off half cocked. But I guarantee within forty-eight hours we'll have orders to move. I'd bet your life on it."

Kohta didn't wait for Slater to reply. He simply turned and marched on, Krieger following just behind him.

He didn't see Seako standing in the briefing room doorway, watching him with a slight smile.

…

That evening, Kohta found himself sat cross legged on his bed, changed into shorts and a T-shirt, breezing through a worn old volume of Shingeki no Kyojin. It was something he'd picked up earlier in the day in an old book and manga shop he'd found. It and three other volumes had cost him a sheet of aspirin and three band-aids. An expensive price by today's standards but in Kohta's mind; worth it.

There was a knock at his door and it opened a moment later, and Skye sauntered in followed by Mary a moment later, both having also changed out of combats into more comfortable pajama shorts and T-shirts.

"You know Skye," Kohta said without looking up from his manga. "most people would consider it rude to enter without being invited."

"Well, you're not most people," Skye replied as she padded into the room and plopped herself down on the end of the bed. "Enjoying your comic book?"

"It's a manga, not a comic book, Skye," Kohta replied, looking up and regarded his friend with a mix of humored disdain. "And yes, I am enjoying it. It's the first manga I've seen I left Japan. Brings back old memory's."

"Good ones?" Mary asked. Kohta shrugged.

"Any time away from the troubles of school and puberty was good."

"Well, we've got something that'll make this night a good one," Skye announced with a cheeky smile. She produced an unopened bottle of supermarket vodka from behind her back, an exceedingly rare and valuable find these days.

Kohta tossed the manga aside and smiled. "Well if we're breaking out the good stuff…" He leaned over to his bedside table and produced a two-thirds full bottle of Texan bourbon; a gift from Tex which they'd shared after a particular hairy firefight.

The three young contractors sat together in a circle on the bed, cracking the seal on Skye's vodka as Kohta uncorked his whiskey and they raised their bottles.

"Well," Kohta toasted happily. "Here's to you and here's to me, May we never disagree. But if we do, The hell with you! Here's to me!"

"Here! Here!" Skye and Mary laughed as they clinked the bottles together and put the bottles to their lips and took a sip. The spirits trickled down their tongues and burned down their throat, nearly causing their eyes to tear up.

Aside from the fact they were used to living off mainly water, instant coffee and little else; Skye was just a few months older than Kohta and Mary was only nineteen. They were all young adults who'd been forced to skip the years where they would've been exposed to the world of alcohol. Still, though, they'd all drunk before, the general view being that if they were old enough to fight in the line of battle in the path of an oncoming horde, they were old enough to have a drink every once in a while.

Kohta took another slug of bourbon before whipping the top with his arm and offering it to Mary. Mary politely refused the drink and instead accepted Skye's vodka, which the latter practically forced into her hands before snatching away Kohta's bourbon and drinking some herself, before coughing as it burned her.

"Jesus!" She cursed as she coughed on the drink. "That tastes like napalm!"

Mary sighed and relieved Skye of the bourbon bottle before she could spill or waste anymore and took a decent sip, far more smoothly than either Skye or Kohta had.

"Hmmm," she murmured contently. "That's a good single malt." The smell and taste took her back to her former home in the Scottish Highlands and to her uncle's distillery on the shores of Loch Eil in the shadows of Ben Nevis and Fort William.

As she took another glug, Kohta's eye's widened as he watched his precious bourbon disappear down the Scottish girl's throat at an alarming rate.

"Hey! Save some for me!" he protested, reaching for the bottle as Mary leaned out of reach with a slight smile without breaking her drink. Skye laughed and so did Mary as Kohta reclaimed his whiskey.

The evening meandered on with laughter and conversation, and before long they could all see and feel the effects of the alcohol in their own and each other systems. Skye became louder and more boisterous with each sip of vodka while Mary began to sway slightly from side to side. Kohta was fairing slightly better, there being more of him to absorb the alcohol, but he could tell that most of inhibitions and self-consciousness was gone.

"Hey," Skye announced in a drunken statement. "Let's play Never Have I Ever!"

Mary groaned and almost tilted over far enough that Kohta through she was going to fall off the bed before she lazily righted herself. Kohta had never heard of or played this game before.

"How do you play?" he asked.

"Easy!" Skye answered happily, then proceeded to explain like an older sibling educating a younger one on some worldly advice. "One person says, 'Never have I ever…' and something they have or have not done. Everyone who's done it drinks…" she paused and had a mischievous look in her eye. "Even if it's dirty."

Kohta smiled, he could see this being fun. He wasn't one normally to pry into the sexual exploits and experiences of others, but the amount of alcohol in his system override any gentlemanly inhibitions in favor of having a good time.

"Alright, let's play."

Skye smiled and started easily and innocently. "Never have I ever… ridden a horse."

Kohta nodded and took a sip of the vodka while Mary drank from his bourbon and Skye took the vodka back off Kohta and drank some herself.

"I never knew you rode Kohta," Mary said inquisitively. He nodded.

"Briefly on assignment in Georgia," He said. "No gas so we patrolled on horseback."

"I see. I rode a lot when I was a girl…" Mary trailed off, looking like she was daydreaming.

"Of course, you did my lady!" Skye snarked. Mary glared at her and gave her a very unladylike hand gesture but just Skye stuck her tongue out and demanded they continue the game.

The first few rounds were innocent enough, Kohta asked if anyone had ever flown first class and Skye surprised everyone by not drinking when Mary asked if anyone had not fancied one of the teachers at their school.

"They were all creeps or assholes!" She explained with a feigned innocent party voice before a sinister smile crept across her face, eyes darting between Kohta and Mary.

"Never have I ever…" she began, "given or received a blowjob!"

Mary went a shade of scarlet before drinking some more of Kohta's Whiskey while Skye chuckled to herself and drank before offering the vodka to Kohta. She looked surprised when he didn't take it.

Kohta shook his head. "Never had one." He replied.

Undeterred, Skye tried again. "Ok, never have I ever given oral sex." Mary drank again, but Kohta still just shook his head.

"Never have I ever had sex!" Skye and Mary drank, but Kohta didn't.

"Kissed someone!" Skye tried. Kohta still didn't drink.

"Kohta, you've never kissed someone!" Skye exclaimed surprised. Kohta shrugged.

"I kissed my mom when I was a kid," He supplied.

"No! Like a girl! A romantic kiss!"

"Nope."

"Really?!"

"Yup."

"So, you've never been kissed by a girl?!"

"I was once," Kohta replied, thinking back. "Shizuka-Sensei kissed me once on the cheek when she was drunk during the outbreak."

"Oh?" Skye asked, not having heard this story. "What happened?" Kohta laughed.

"Not much. She gave me a nosebleed, I more or less passed out and so did she from being drunk and when Takashi asked if I could help him carry her inside all I could say was 'I like turtles'."

"TURTLES ARE AWESOME!" Mary suddenly proclaimed loudly, startling Skye and Kohta. Her face had flushed a deep crimson and she held Kohta's now empty bourbon bottle in one hand.

"uh-oh," Skye and Kohta both said when they realized they'd been distracted with Kohta's love life.

"Mary, sweetie," Skye said gently. "I think you've had enough."

"But wha' about tha TURTLES!" Mary demanded, unaware that she was swaying precariously close to falling off the bed.

"The turtles are fine Mary," Kohta said as he maneuvered to grab her and stop her from falling off the bed.

"Tha's good…" Mary murmured drunkenly. "Coz turtles swim… and are heavy… they sink if they aren't… careful…"

Mary's drunken ramblings ceased as she finally toppled over, face first into the bed thankfully. She straightened herself out and sighed as she made herself comfortable and drifted off to sleep. "Hmmm, turtles…."

Kohta and Skye looked at each other and tried not to laugh. It had been a good night, better than any of them had had in a long time. For a while, it had seen like old times, a quick reminder of both what their lives once had been and could have been.

"You want me to help me carry her back to her room?" Kohta asked, nodding at Mary. Skye shook her head.

"No, she's comfortable," She replied, before making Kohta's eyes go wide and face flush as she pulled at the hem of her T-shirt and discarded it. "And so am I."

"Fine," Kohta said, averting his gaze from Skye's considerable chest. "You take the bed. I'll take the floor."

"Nope," Skye wrapped her arms around Kohta's neck and pulled him down onto the bed so they were lying on their sides facing one another. "You're enough of a gentleman to share a bed for the night Kohta. And…" Her gaze hardened for a moment. "After today, I don't think I can sleep alone tonight."

Kohta nodded and accepted that he wasn't getting out of this one. She and he carefully maneuvered Mary's unconscious form beneath the blankets before turning out the lights and retreating under the covers themselves. He was warm, and she was cold. She closed her eyes, holding onto Kohta like a frightened girl with an oversized teddy bear, and he closed his eyes along with her. Together they fell asleep, not knowing what the next day would bring, accept that they might die tomorrow.

…

 _Kohta hit the ground hard and rolled, raising his rifle towards the threat. But there was none, he stood alone on a battlefield. Forests and buildings had been_ _leveled_ _, all blasted to pieces so just splintered stumps and rubble remained._

 _There were bodies everywhere; thousands of undead lay dead in piles of rotting bloody corpses piled high from where they'd been killed climbing over each other. There were humans there too, Kohta could see their uniforms bloody and torn. Americans. British. Canadian, Mexican, German, French. Japanese. All places and peoples he'd fought the undead._

 _He walked among the fallen. There were civilians among the fallen. Men, Women and Children. Some had fallen in combat, other died huddled together, their faces frozen in fear like statues._

 _Kohta looked away. It was hard to look at._

Suddenly a voice spoke out in the wind, a clear, forceful feminine voice.

" _You couldn't save them Kohta."_

 _Kohta spun to face the voice. Saeko stood among the dead, dressed as she was during their escape from Tokonosu, sword at her hip._

" _You can't save everyone Saeko."_ _He_ _replied, looking out over the battlefield._

" _You failed them."_

" _No. I did everything I could to save them."_

" _Is that what you told my parents? That you did everything you could to save me?" A new voice asked. Kohta turned to see Hobbs stood behind him. Just as he had been the day before his death._

" _I couldn't save you, Hobbs," Kohta replied. He knew it sounded like a poor excuse. "Your head was gone! You took a fifty to the face!"_

" _You didn't even try!" He said accusingly, glaring at Kohta._

" _And you abandoned me!" Kohta knew that voice anywhere, it had once been in his dreams, now only in his nightmares._

 _"I didn't abandon you, Saya." Kohta replied, turning to face her. "You were safe! Your father could protect you better than I ever could!"_

" _Baka! I didn't need protecting!"_ _She_ _spat. "I loved you! But you left me! You ran away like_ _the_ _cowardly Otaku you are!"_

" _No." Kohta replied, quieter than he meant to. "I didn't run. I'm not a coward."_

 _More people started to emerge from the field. All of them friends or colleagues who'd died on the same ops that Kohta had been on, either by the living or undead. They all started accusing him, their sharp voices getting louder and louder._

" _You got me killed!"_

" _Why did you leave me behind?!"_

" _You didn't save me, you dick!"_

" _He's just a fat Otaku with a gun! What gives you the right to live?!"_

" _Coward! Murderer!"_

" _Grab him!"_

 _The people swarmed him, suddenly becoming the undead instead of the people they had once been. Kohta tried to raise his rifle but to find it had vanished into black ash. A moment the undead were upon him. He lashed out with fist and boot, striking out as fast as he could, but it wasn't enough. They managed to get their arms around his neck and chest and force him to his knees, immobilizing his arms preventing him from fighting back._

 _An undead Saeko stood over him and drew her sword._

" _On a charge of treason, cowardice, and murder. I, Saeko Busujima, sword mistress of Lord Takagi, Lord of Tokonosu,_ _savior_ _and Prime Minister of Japan, find you guilty and sentence you to die."_

 _She raised her sword above her head, ready to take his head._

" _If you have any last words, now's the time."_

 _Kohta sighed and bowed his head._

" _I never wanted to do more than help others and I'm sorry I couldn't save you all." He said, making his final peace. "Go on. Do your duty."_

 _Kohta closed his eyes, and Saeko's sword flashed downwards._

Kohta's eyes opened with a start. He was no longer on the battlefield, he was in his hotel room with Mary and Skye sleeping peacefully on either side of him. He looked around the room for anything out of place, then sighed and collapsed his head back into the pillow.

'Damn it!' He thought. 'Sleeping with two hot girls (one of whom was topless) and still having nightmares… Well, at least it wasn't a wet dream.'

There was a knock at the door which brought Kohta back to reality. He carefully managed to escape from the bed without waking Mary or Skye and opened the door to find Tex standing there.

"Hey man," he said, a serious expression on his face. "Colonel Lail wants to see you down in the lobby for zero-eight-hundred. Something about a personal meeting."

"Alright." Kohta nodded. He still had time to wash, shave and get some breakfast before then.

"By the way," Tex added. "I went to check on Skye this morning, but she's not in her room. Any idea where she's gone?"

Kohta was about to answer that he hadn't, when a high, feminine, almost sexual voice came from inside the room.

"Kohtaaa! Come back to bed! Mary's cold!"

Kohta felt like all of his innocence had been stabbed in the gut as he watched a sly, knowing smirk grow across Tex's face.

"She's just a friend." Kohta managed to say with a straight, if flushed face.

"Whatever you say, partner." Tex replied with a shit ass grin before turning away to leave the young protégé to his fledgling harem.

…

Within the hour, Kohta arrived in the hotel lobby dressed in full combat fatigues ready for a deployment briefing. Instead, he was surprised to find Saeko standing in the hotel lobby talking with Colonel Lail.

"Greetings Hirano-san." Saeko greeted when she saw him approach them, bowing slightly to him. Kohta's first reaction suspicion. The last time he saw her, she executed him. But then again, that was a nightmare…

"Hello, Busujima-san." Kohta replied with a nod. He turned to Colonel Lail. "You send for me sir?"

"Actually, Prime Minister Takagi did." he replied. "He's asked to see you and sent Miss Busujima here to escort you."

'Oh shit!' Kohta immediately thought, remembering the death glare that Lord Takagi had fixed him with at the Welcome to Japan briefing the contractors had received. Kohta swallowed hard.

"I see," He said, wondering if and how he could get out of the meeting alive. "When does he want to see me?"

"Right now," Saeko replied. "Allow me to escort you there."

"Ah…ok." Kohta felt like he'd been stabbed. She was remarkably calm for someone potentially escorting an old friend to their execution.

"Come back when your finished Kohta, I have a contract op for you." Lail said, placing a hand on Kohta's shoulder before he headed off towards his office, leaving Kohta to his fate.

"This way, Hirano-san." Saeko said, turning and leading him towards the doors. Reluctantly, Hirano followed with lead filled boots.

She led him outside and down the main high-street towards the imperial palace. Kohta remembered visiting it as a preteen with his family and idly wondering how the palace could be defended in the event of a zombie apocalypse.

Oh, sweet irony.

"So, am I going to be alive at the end of this meeting? Or should I have my last will and testimony ready?" Kohta asked; half-jokingly, half serious. Saeko laughed.

"Takagi-dono's not going to kill you, Hirano." she replied with an amused smile. "If he was, you'd already be dead." Kohta opened his mouth to protest, but then reconsidered and shut it, accepting that that was the most likely outcome. To take his mind off it, Kohta looked around the city.

In many ways, the outer ring of the city, the name given to the area of the settlement outside the palace walls, had changed little from before the fall. Clothes stores and boutiques were given over to the storage of various clothes and other items that survivors might need in the everyday lives. Offices too had been given over to administration centres that managed admin for not only the Tokyo settlement but for the other government aligned settlements as well.

"It's good to see you again, Hirano." Saeko said, bringing Kohta back from his sightseeing. "Things have been… different, without you."

"You seem to have done well for yourselves." Kohta said. "Is everyone in the service of Lord Takagi, or just you?" Saeko shook her head.

"Miyamoto-san is one of the Kakka's personal ambassadors," She explained. "Takagi-san is one of the senior interior ministers. Shizuka-Sensei is a doctor at the hospital and Alice-chan is still in school, but is also apprenticed to me in the Dojo."

"I see." Kohta briefly thought about what might have become of him if he'd stayed rather than left to become a contractor.

"You could've stayed Hirano." Saeko turned her head slightly so Kohta could see the determination in her eyes. "You still could."

Kohta shook his head. "There was nothing here for me Busujima-san. Then or now. This is just another job to me."

"Nothing?"

"Nothing."

"Not even Takagi?"

Kohta hesitated.

"No." He answered. "Not anymore."

They walked the rest of the way in near silence, only passing greeting to people who greeted them in passing. Eventually, they arrived at the imperial palace. The armed SDF guards let Saeko and Kohta pass without even stopping to search them or say hello.

As well as being the centre of the Japanese government, the palace was also the headquarters for what remained of the JSDF. A lot of its grounds had been given over to barracks, training grounds and firing ranges, much in the way it would have been in ancient times, but with guns in place of swords.

Saeko lead Kohta inside the main palace building, through a winding series of corridors and offices before finally arriving at a large pair of carved oak doors with a security officer waiting for them.

"Excuse me, sir." the guard said, stepping forward and blocking Kohta's path. He gestured to Kohta's hip. "I'm going to need you to hand over your weapons."

Kohta regarded the man with a scowl. His Nighthawk Custom 1911 was his most prized possession, second only to Krieger whom he regarded as a person anyway. He wasn't about to hand it over to some security guard he didn't know.

The guard glared at Kohta upon his hesitation and repeated his request. "You need to surrender your weapons, sir. Now."

As he started to reach forward for the holstered pistol on Kohta's belt, Kohta's hand fell to the pistol, his finger's forming around its grip like water ready to draw it faster than the guard could react, but he stopped when he heard the soft _snick_ of Saeko's katana being loosened in its saya.

Kohta looked at Saeko, then the guard, before pulling his Nighthawk free of its holster and in one fluid motion without breaking eye contact with the guard, removed the magazine and dechambered the loaded round, catching it in mid-air and slotting it back into the magazine before releasing the action on the Nighthawk. He offered the pistol and its magazine to Saeko.

"No offense." He said to the guard. "But I fought my way out of Tokonosu with her, not you."

Saeko reset her katana and took the offered pistol, placing it and the magazine into a pocket on her jacket and nodding to dismiss the guard before moving to the door. The guard stepped aside and Kohta moved towards the opening door… and suddenly wished he hadn't surrendered his weapon.

To anyone else, Souichiro Takagi looked like just another head of state; a middle-aged man working behind his desk, waiting for his next appointment. To Kohta; he was a man, a samurai lord who's only daughter's honor and heart Kohta had besmirched and betrayed.

Part of him wanted to get on his knees and beg forgiveness, to try to explain and rationalize what he did. Part of him wanted to run… No. Kohta had done nothing wrong. He had made a choice to leave Japan and go where he could do the most good, and If Saya knew him as well as he thought she did, she would've accepted that.

"Hirano." Takagi said as Kohta walked in.

"Kakka." Kohta returned, bowing respectfully. "It is good to see you again, Takagi-dono."

"Hmm." Takagi growled as he folded his hands under his jaw and regarded the young man before him. "Please, have a seat."

Kohta took a seat opposite the former Lord of Tokonosu. Saeko stood behind him, like an officer standing over an accused criminal before a judge… a judge whose daughter he'd wronged.

An uncomfortable silence followed, which Takagi broke after a while.

"Hirano," he began. "I asked you here for personal reasons. I am not here as Prime Minister of Japan, I am here as a father whose daughter was hurt."

"I understand Takagi-dono." Kohta replied. "And you must know that I had no intention of hurting your daughter."

"But you did." Takagi replied. He studied the young man for a moment "Why Hirano? I put my trust in you to protect my daughter, and you abandoned her and your duty."

"I did not abandon her, sir." Kohta replied, his voice and face hardening at the accusation. "I was stripped of my arms and my ability to protect her. I was refused service in the military. When Colonel Lail found me, he gave me a chance to do good for others."

Kohta paused, sucking air like he was in pain before continuing.

"Initially I turned him down, but then you were reunited with Saya, and I knew you could protect her better than could. So, I accepted the Colonel's offer so I could be trained and help people."

"I understand that Hirano-san," Takagi replied. "It is honorable that you choose to fight for the sake of others who cannot. But you needn't have hurt my daughter to do that. Or left Japan. If you had spoken to me, I would have gladly taken you into my house as an armed retainer."

Kohta shook his head, "I did not mean to hurt your daughter, sir. But when I told her, she became hysteric, angry, and started screaming at me. That I was abandoning her and that I didn't care about her. She eventually ordered me to leave, and go and do whatever I wanted." Kohta looked Lord Takagi straight in the eyes. "So, I left to serve where I would be welcomed, rather than scolded and demeaned. Sir."

An awkward silence followed, but neither man broke eye contact with the other as they studied one another. After a while, Takagi nodded.

"Very well, Hirano." he said as he stood and offering a hand for Kohta to shake. "Thank you for your time. You have shed some light on this old wound."

"It was my pleasure Kakka," Kohta replied, it had been anything but, but it was good to have it cleared up and politely shook the prime minister's hand. "With your permission, I'll return to my duties."

Takagi nodded, "Carry on, Hirano."

Kohta turned to leave, pausing only to collect his Nighthawk and reload it before leaving the office and heading back to whatever it was Colonel Lail said he had for him. Meanwhile, Takagi and Saeko stood for a moment in silence before he asked her something.

"What do you make of him Busujima-san?"

Saeko sighed, "Kohta is an honorable man, and always has been. Knowing both of them and now having heard both sides, I think that they were both to blame for what happened. Saya overreacted to Hirano's decision to leave and Hirano underestimated the growing feeling's Saya had for him."

"I agree. Although I think he may have had some idea of her feelings. He seemed to regret the decision in part, if for the damage it caused and not what he lost."

"Do you still think it's right to keep them apart?"

"I do. Separation and combat have matured Kohta into a fine young man. But I fear that Saya still carries too much anger. If they were to meet, the consequences would be dire, for both of them."

* * *

 _Chapter 5 is in the works. Will probably be released next week._

 _Please Review/ favourite/ follow._

 _Jango_

 _P.S. To the asshole who stole my thinking cookies... I will find you. You are not safe... I've told your wife._


	5. Chapter 5

_Ronin_

 _Chapter five_

They reached the Thomson Settlement by noon. Colonel Lail had made sure everyone was fully briefed on what – and who – to expect once they arrived.

Before the apocalypse, it had been an upscale country club about 80km north of Tokyo off the Tokhou Express road and was known for its excellent golf course. Today, however, it was home to a small settlement of farmers who'd turned the golf courses into farms, trading fairways to corn fields.

Previously, the inhabitants had rejected any armed Self Defence Force presence and even any firearms or training for themselves. But since the incident at the Matsuzaki settlement, (Which Kohta suspected word was beginning to leak out about) the government 'insisted' that the inhabitants received some firearms training, which they had little to no choice but to accept.

As they neared the compound, a sentry atop the roof of the main building waved to them and they slowed. Kohta retrieved a small yellow flag from the turret and waved it back. It was a code system for government vehicle traffic, the colour of the day changed every day on a two-week rota and was used as a 'we are who we say we are' identifier.

The sentry seemed satisfied by the SDF Humvee and the flag and waved them forwards towards the gate, where another sentry, a middle-aged man with thinning black hair, was midway through pushing a white sedan that blocked the entrance aside with the aid of two young boys no older than twelve.

The man and boys smiled at Kohta as the Humvee passed through the gate and drove up towards the front steps and pulling up in the parking lot. Kohta noticed that as well as their Humvee taking up space in the lot, there was an old horse drawn cart parked nearby too. It wasn't unusual; most places didn't have the resources to fix up vehicles after the EMP, but Kohta still found the sight of the cart strange, almost amusing.

A young man with tanned skin and black hair tied into a ponytail met them in the parking lot. He regarded the Humvee and its three accompanying contractors with disdain; as someone would with an unwelcome, but necessary visit from the police. He offered no greeting but just crossed his arms defiantly. "Did you bring the guns?" he asked in Japanese.

"Hai," Kohta replied with a frown. "Six M4 Carbines, three thousand rounds of ammo and six chest rigs."

The man shrugged as if that was meant to have impressed him. He pointed at the ground in front of them. "Great. Leave them there and you can go. We'll hand them around later."

Dino, who'd been put in charge of the training mission, fixed the man with a firm glare. "Nah mate. Instead, why you go round up your people and we'll start training them. Unless you've got someone with military firearms experience can do it for you."

Mr. Ponytail gave the Aussie an indignant glare and shrug before huffing off to go and round up his people.

"Charming," Mary commented as she walked around to the back of the Humvee and started unloading boxes of ammo and rifles. "Wonder what his problem is?"

"Some people just don't get it," Dino shrugged as he started helping to unload. He jerked his head towards where Mr. Ponytail had disappeared to. "Fuckers like him have been living off guys and gals like us for years. They sure love their security, but can't stop bitching about how it's done. And no amount of seeing innocents die will change their minds."

Kohta didn't have anything to add so just started putting some of their pre-loaded magazines into the chest rigs they'd brought for the settlement. Part of him was skeptical about handing over weapons to people who actively avoided fighting, he'd prefer to hand them over to someone who'd actually jump in to help in a firefight rather than run away and hide. He shook his head and silently told himself; _'You don't get to choose who you help, Kohta. You don't get to choose…"_

Within a few minutes, Pony Tail returned with a dozen or so people and gathered around the Humvee. The lesson went on for most of the afternoon, with Kohta translating into Japanese while Dino and Mary demonstrated on the rifles. The rifles were basic and simple; standard M4 carbines with iron sights. They covered how to load, aim and fire the weapons, how to change magazines, clear jams and also how to disassemble, clean and reassemble the rifle as well as mounting a shoulder sling.

To their credit, despite some obviously having the same attitude as Pony Tail, the farmers did listen, absorb the information and a few even asked some smart questions, like what to do if the weapon was in any way damaged.

By the end of the lesson, the sun was beginning to set and there was no way that the contractors were going to make it back to the Tokyo Settlement before dark. So with little choice other than an overnight drive, the contractors elected to stay the night and head back on the morrow. Once the weapons and ammo were stored securely in an otherwise unused cupboard, the contractors were invited to dinner in what had been the country club's upmarket café.

As the three contractors lined up for food with the other farmers, something caught Kohta's eye; a man sat alone at a corner table. He wasn't dressed like a farmer, instead of the hard-worn coveralls that the farmers favored, he was dressed in a pair of designer jeans that looked like they'd been washed sometime in the last week, and a leather bomber jacket that was hooked over the back of his seat in equally good condition. The final thing that made Kohta curious, was that he lacked the defined musculature that most of the farmers had earned from years of hard graft in the field.

Kohta turned to the farmer behind him in the dinner line, an attractive young woman in her early twenty's. "Who's he?" Kohta asked, nodding to the man.

The woman looked and smiled before replying. "Oh, that's Shigenori-sama. He's a traveling merchant from one of the other towns."

"A government settlement?" Kohta asked on a hunch.

The woman shook her head. "No, one of the independent ones. I don't know which though…"

"Interesting, thank you," Kohta replied with a smile. His hunch was right. He turned back forwards and said nothing more as he waited his turn for food.

Since the incident with the Matsuzaki settlement, the government had been probing around for information on the attackers. But frequent recon flights and occasional stop and searches by the limited naval forces had proven fruitless, and the government lacked the resources to do much more. But, Kohta and some of the other contractors had adopted a different approach.

The advantage that mercenaries (or at least the good ones) had over uniformed government forces, was that they could operate on a lower key, independent basis. No one would look twice at a man in civilian clothes with an AR-15 in a pirate haven but they would at a uniformed soldier or policeman, and immediately clam up with any information they may have.

As Mary and Dino moved towards a table, Kohta walked straight past them saying "Cover me," as he went straight towards the merchant's table. The merchant looked up from his meal as Kohta hovered over his table.

"Is this seat taken?" Kohta asked, nodding to the vacant seat. The merchant looked Kohta over before glancing at Dino and Mary.

"Why don't you go and eat with your friends?" The man asked. Kohta looked at them for show and shrugged.

"I see them every day," he replied. "And I hear you're a merchant from the independent towns. I have a business proposition."

The man's eyebrows climbed his forehead. He knew he was talking to a government contractor, news of their hiring had begun to filter into the independent settlements, but he was intrigued by the young man's offer, so motioned for him to sit.

"So, what can I do for you? Mr…"

"Hamada," Kohta replied, going to his standard bullshit false name. He took his seat and put a forkful of his dinner into his mouth. "And I'm looking for a fishing boat."

"A fishing boat?" Shigenori repeated slowly as if he hadn't heard Kohta right. Kohta nodded.

"Yeah. See, my contractor friends and I…" He glanced over at Dino and Mary. "our contract is up in a month and," Kohta paused, putting on a convincing front as if he were remorseful. "We've seen enough fighting for this life. Some peace would be a nice change."

"Why not just grab one from any harbour in Japan?" Shigenori shrugged. Kohta shook his head.

"They were all fried by the EMP," he said, "We need one that works. Gonna find us a small island with a beachside house, some hot women and a bar full of Bacardi."

Shigenori laughed, drawing the eyes of a few people before they went back to their dinner. "You could just sail to Roanapur."

Kohta laughed back. "Do I look like Triad or a Russian paratrooper to you?"

"Point," Shigenori nodded. He thought for a moment, chewing on his dinner before nodding. "Yes, I can think of a few places where you may find such a boat. The question is, why should I tell you?"

Kohta sighed. He opened one of the pouches on his body armour and produced a zip lock plastic bag and placed it on the table.

"One well-stocked battlefield med kit," Kohta said, proffering the bag. "Two battlefield tourniquets, assorted painkillers, dressings, epi pen and morphine."

Shigenori first looked at Kohta opposite him with an all business stare before looking through the bag to confirm the contents. After a thorough inspection, he looked again to see if Kohta was serious. He removed a notepad and pen from his pocket and scribbled something down before tearing the page off and handing it to Kohta.

"Those are the open ports where you're likely to find what you're looking for," Shigenori said as he rapidly stuffed the medkit into his jacket pocket. Kohta looked down the list, there were three place names on it:

 _Ōsaka_

 _Yokkaichi_

 _Ōarai_

Kohta nodded and put the piece of paper in a secure pocket. "Arigato. Sayonara Shigenori-San."

"Sayonara Hamada-San," Bowing his head to the young contractor. "A pleasure doing business with you."

Kohta took what was left of his food and returned to Dino and Mary's table to finish his dinner.

"So, what was that about?" Dino asked, glancing over at the merchant Kohta had just been chatting with.

"I might have a lead on the Matsuzaki attackers," Kohta replied. Dino and Mary froze and Dino even dropped his spoon.

"You _what?_ " Dino asked in surprise, he and Mary leaned in close to listen what Kohta had found. Kohta leaned forward and kept his voice low so as not to be overheard.

"I asked him about where would be best to get a functioning fishing boat," Kohta explained. "The attackers made off with eighteen boats. Assuming they keep some so they can fish and feed themselves, they might try to sell the rest of them off for supplies or weapons."

"Good thinking mate," Dino applauded. A fully equipped fishing boat these days would be worth its weight in gold to anyone. No matter how many people could fight the undead, they still had to eat and scavenging wasn't a long-term solution, especially with everyone doing it and the limited shelf life of critical items.

"We need to report this back to command," Mary said. She rose, intent on using the humvee's radio to call the Tokyo settlement when Dino stopped her, halting her with a grasp of her wrist.

"Not so fast there Mary," He cautioned, glancing around the assorted farmers who, at first glance, seemed to be doing nothing but enjoying their dinner. He guided her back down before continuing. "You don't know who could be listening. Best deliver the report in person when we get back tomorrow."

"So what now?" Kohta asked.

"Keep it to yourselves and get some rest. I get the feeling the next few days are going to be busy."

…

As soon as Dino, Kohta and Mary returned the following morning, they went straight for Lail's office and reported their findings. Within half an hour, the four contractors along with Tex and McCowan were waiting in the ops room for Prime Minister Takagi to brief him on the developments.

After a short while of waiting, Lord Takagi and Saeko arrived with a third person in tow. She could almost have passed for being Saeko's elder sister if not for the deep red eyes and her golden bronze skin.

"Kakka," Lail greeted with a respectful nod.

"Colonel," Takagi returned, he motioned to the second woman. "Gentlemen, ladies, this is Lieutenant Rika Minami. She's our expert on the unaffiliated towns and a former sniper in the SAT."

"And it was her apartment we found all the guns in, Hirano," Saeko added with a smirk. Both Kohta and Rika's eye's widened in surprise.

"Hirano?" Rika asked. She pointed at Kohta as she sized him up. "You're the one who stole my AR-10?"

"Hai," Kohta replied with a respectful nod, catching the smirking glances of some of the other contractors. "That was me. You have my respect Minami-san, that thing was a beauty. But how'd you get it into Japan? That thing was defiantly illegal, right?"

Rika smirked at the younger sniper, "From a nice little place called 'none of your beeswax', kid!" She replied, earning a smile from Lail and Takagi and a round of light laughter from everyone else. After a moment though, Takagi cleared his throat and returned the room to business.

"Colonel, you said you had a development?"

"We did, Kakka," Lail answered with an accompanying nod. He then turned to Kohta. "Hirano, if you'd like to explain."

Kohta spent the next few minutes talking about his encounter with the merchant, their conversation, the reasoning behind the questions and the conclusions he'd drawn from it as well as producing the list. Throughout his briefing, no one interrupted or added anything and Rika listened especially closely, analyzing everything he said against what she knew of the independent settlements.

"Well, Minami-san?" Takagi asked when Kohta concluded his briefing. "What do you think?"

Minami nodded. "It's certainly possible," she said. "And it's more solid than anything we have."

"Do you think this is actionable?"

"I do, Kakka," She paused to retrieve a laminated map of eastern and central Japan from a side cupboard and unrolled it on the central table they were all gathered around. She pulled a marker pen from her pocket and popped the lid before continuing.

"Of the places Hirano got, I can rule out Ōarai immediately," she said, making a cross over the small coastal town. "It's far too small a trading post and it's not really popular as a smuggler or pirate den."

"Plus, to get from Matsuzaki to Ōarai, you'd have to sail past Tokyo Bay," Dino pointed out, tracing a line between the two to prove his point. "They would've been spotted by one of our planes or boats."

"Exactly," Rika said, holding her stare on the Australian a little longer than what would've gone undetected. Kohta was forced to hide a small smirk while Rika continued.

"I can also rule out Yokkaichi," she said, crossing off the port city to the south of Tokyo. "It doesn't really have the facilities to support a fleet of small boats long term. Most of the trade is already moving to other settlements, like Osaka," She put a circle around the ancient Japanese city.

Osaka sat just south of Kyoto on Osaka Bay, which itself was the eastern end of the inland Harima-nada Sea. It was sheltered from the worst of the Pacific and South China sea storms while also offering easy access to the open sea and hundreds of smaller islands; a perfect place for a trading post or a pirate haven to sell some boats and disappear.

"So, you think Osaka is the most likely?" McCowan asked.

"Or Kobe," Rika answered with a shrug "The two are practically symbiotic."

Lail nodded, absorbing the information and forming a judgment based upon it. "Kakka, it is my recommendation we send a small team undercover to Osaka and Kobe with a list of the missing boats and see what they find. If they find any of the boats they can question the crew, gather intelligence and report back."

"I agree, Kakka," Rika concurred. "I have a few contacts in both cites that might be able to help us."

Takagi looked as if he were considering the suggestions for a moment, before giving his permission in his usual, gravelly voice.

"Assemble a small team Colonel. Five contractors and Lieutenant Minami I think. I shall arrange for transport."

"Yes, sir," Lail replied before turning to his contractors. "Tex, Dino, Kohta; grab Skye and Slater and pack some civvies and gear you need for a few days. Staff McCowan, draw out some M4's and gear we could afford to lose and something to barter with."

"Aye, sir," the Scot replied. He turned to leave and paused next to Kohta, placing a hand on the young protégé's shoulder. "That means ya leave your SCAR here, laddie."

"Aww," Kohta groaned, which caused everyone to laugh before they headed out to prep for the mission.

…

Kohta headed up to his room while Tex and Dino went to grab Slater and Skye on route to their own. They were due to go just after noon and sail overnight, but he knew that could change and wanted to be ready.

He grabbed his kit and quickly packed a few changes of both clean and used civvies before trading his MultiCam BDUs for a pair of tan zip off trousers and a Tokyo Tourist T-shirt he'd picked up. He shoved his kit in the bag, his Sig in his thigh pocket, and pulled on his jacket before heading out towards the armoury to help with weapons and kit.

He got about halfway down the corridor before he nearly ran headfirst into Mary, who was just about to step through her open door.

"Kohta, hey," she said, stopping him in his tracks. "Going somewhere?"

"Osaka," He replied. "See what we can find any leads on the Matsuzaki attackers."

"I see," She said. She looked up and down the corridor to be sure they were alone before she looked Kohta in the eyes.

"So, what you said the other day," She asked with the slightest hint of a blush. "When we were drinking… was it true? That you've never kissed a girl?"

"Yeah, it's true," Kohta replied, slightly embarrassed by the fact. "Why?"

"No reason," She answered before she leaned in and kissed him.

Kohta's eyes flew open and he dropped his bag as her lips came against his. His heart felt like it was suddenly pounding faster than a .50 on full auto as his eyes became heavy and they closed. They stayed like that for a short while before she pulled away.

"For luck," She said with a smile as his eye's opened and she stepped back into her room. "Good luck, sailor."

She shut the door and left him standing there, his mouth bobbing open and shut like a goldfish but with no words or sound coming out. For nearly a whole minute, Kohta just stood there, before he finally regained his senses and stooped to pick up his bag and plodded off towards the armoury.

…

Even a few hours later, Kohta was still thinking about it as he and the other contractors helped out with loading the boat for their excursion to Osaka.

They'd been given a fifty-foot pleasure cruiser named The _Mutsuki_ as their ride to Osaka. It was a single hull boat with a lower and upper deck as well as a flying bridge. It also featured a small functioning galley that they could cook their meals on, the main room with comfortable sofas along the walls and even a bar, though all the alcohol had been long since removed. It may have been pretty, but it was far more suited to its intended purpose of carrying partying tourists and students than it ever would be acting as a vessel to chase down kidnappers and murders.

"Ok, I've put the LAWs behind the bar for rapid use, but we've only been given three and after that, it's small arms." Kohta reported as he exited the 'party deck' and came up to the flying bridge where Tex was familiarizing himself with the boat controls.

"Alright, good work Kohta," Tex replied without looking up from the control panel. "Do me a favor and go sling our hammocks would ya?"

Kohta gave no immediate answer so Tex looked up. Kohta was just stood there, looking like he was either lost or deep in thought.

"Kohta?" Still no reply. Tex gave his shoulder a shake. "Hey, Kohta? You there, man?"

"Hmm?" Kohta murmured suddenly snapping back to reality. "Sorry, what Tex?"

"You alright man?" Tex asked genuinely concerned. Kohta was normally he was 100% professional operator before an op, he never spaced out.

"Yeah," Kohta replied shaking his head like he was clearing out the cobwebs. "Yeah, I'm fine."

"You sure man? You've been kinda off since the briefing. If you need to sit this one out…"

"No, it's not the op. It's something else."

Tex gave a wide friendly shrug as he sat himself down in the captain's chair. "Tell me."

Kohta sighed. He wasn't sure he wanted to talk about it, but Tex was right; if it was distracting him, best to talk about it now rather than be distracted in a firefight.

"You remember when you walked in on me with Skye and Mary?" Kohta asked.

"Yeah," Tex nodded, his smile growing wider and wider by the moment. Kohta shook his head, dismissing the less than Christian thoughts forming in Tex's mind.

"Well, that night we played 'Never have I ever.'" Kohta explained. "It's a drinking game where one person says…"

"I know, I've played," Tex interrupted, raising his hand to stop him. "Did something happen?"

"Sort of," Kohta admitted. "During the game, it came out that I'd never kissed or been kissed by a girl."

"Really?" Tex replied in a surprised voice. "Never?"

"Never."

"Not even by that Saya chick?"

"Nope."

"Ok… so what happened?"

"On the way down to the armoury, I ran into Mary."

"Yeah?"

"And she… kissed me."

Tex watched in silence as Kohta's face started to flush red, before he scoffed, then broke out laughing, ignoring the glare Kohta shot at him for doing so.

"Well congratulations partner!" Tex laughed. "'bout time you got your lips wet!"

"Tex! This is serious!" Kohta scolded. "I have no idea what this means! Does she like me?! Does she want to go out with me?! Does she want to do stuff with me?!..."

"Whoa whoa whoa. Slow down there partner!" Tex said, finally managing to bring his laughter under control and whipping a tear from his eye. "Just because she kissed you doesn't mean she wants to marry you! Ok?" Seeing that Kohta was panicked into thinking that might just be what she wanted, Tex rolled his eyes and stopped kidding around.

"Alright Kohta, let me explain a few things about women." He motioned for Kohta to take a seat on a padded bench at the rear of the bridge

"Alright, I've been thinking for a while now that both Mary _and_ Skye might be interested in you as more than a friend." He held up a hand to stop Kohta before he could say anything. "Now I could be wrong. Mary might just like you only as a friend and she was just wishing you luck on a dangerous mission. But you might want to talk to her when we get back. Until then, I need you at your best. Ok, buddy?"

Kohta nodded and stood up. "Sure thing. Thanks, Tex."

"Anytime partner. Now, go rig up those hammocks," Tex replied as he spun back round to face the controls as Kohta went below.

It wasn't difficult to rig up the hammocks, the boat had hooks in the ceiling designed for it as well as hanging fairy lights, party items and the like. It didn't take long but it was a critical job that gave Kohta time to think on what Tex had said. Did the girls like him as more than a friend? Granted he had a bit more self-confidence than he used to, but he hardly saw himself as a desirable specimen.

"Hey, that Minami chick here yet?" Dino called out as he came up from below. Kohta shook his mind clear of girls and got back to the job at hand.

"No mate, no sign of her, Slater or Skye," He replied as he tied up the last hammock. "I'll go keep a lookout."

"Cheers mate," Dino replied with a flash of a smile before he headed up towards the bridge. Kohta headed aft, exiting the party deck and took a seat aft sundeck, unslinging his M4 and placing it across his lap.

Kohta regarded the weapon with a mix of respect and mild annoyance. He had the highest respect for the M4 carbine. It was a very good, basic weapon that was accurate, reliable, light and, most importantly, customizable. Given free reign of an armoury or weapons accessory store, Kohta could turn the M4 across his lap into a zombie slaying work of art!

But this one was one of the basic ones they gave out to survivor groups. No optics. No grips. No suppressor. Just a pair of folding iron sights and that was it. It worked, but Kohta missed his SCAR… his oh so beautiful SCAR…

But before he could start drooling over the thought of his prized desert tan battle rifle, Kohta was interrupted by the sudden arrival of Krieger, the large German shepherd leaping aboard the boat causing it to bob slightly as he ran excitedly towards his human.

"Hey, buddy," Kohta greeted, giving the canine an affectionate scratch behind the ears and receiving equally affectionate licks of his hand in return. "What are you doing here? You wanna come with us?"

"He was bummed that he got left behind on the last ones," Skye announced with a smile as she stepped aboard followed by Slater.

"He may have also stolen a string of sausages and be on the run," Slater added with a smirk. Kohta looked at the dog accusingly.

"Did you boy? Did you steal sausages from the kitchen?"

Krieger lay down and whimpered with puppy dog eyes: A clear admission of guilt. Kohta smiled and gave the dog an affectionate rub of the neck.

"You could've saved some for me!" he whispered happily. He could never be mad at Krieger.

"Hey!" Tex called down from the bridge above. "Anyone seen the LT?"

"Yeah!" Skye called back, pointing. "She's just coming now!"

Kohta followed her arm out towards the shore and spotted Rika with a group of people at the marina's perimeter wire. He looked a little closer and eye's widened, He couldn't hear them from where he was, but he could clearly see them. Shizuka, Alice and Zeke had come to see her off.

Alice had grown since he last saw her. She'd gained an extra foot in height and started to take on a womanlier form, as well as her hair having grown out into a darker shade of pink and was now tied in a short ponytail. But she still had some hints of the child that Kohta had taught _'Shoot! Shoot! Shoot your gun!'_ all those years ago.

Zeke had grown too, and was still by her side, though no larger than a fat house cat. Kohta smirked at the idea of him standing up to Krieger… and Krieger's bemusement at the smaller dog.

Shizuka however, by appearances anyway, hadn't changed much. Her hair was now shorter and, like Alice's, now tied in a ponytail. But she still had the same slim, curved, voluptuous body, the slightest exposure to which would cause any male to have a nosebleed so severe a transfusion would normally be required.

It was good to see them all again, Kohta thought. They looked happy.

Kohta was about to go below and finish prep for deployment when he saw some movement on the docks. Saeko was escorting a beautiful woman in a business suit striding down the docks. She had shoulder length pink hair, glasses, and a pistol holster on her belt.

Kohta froze; it was Saya.

Wow. She looked… wow. He watched with his jaw hung open as she walked over to his old group to see Rika off. She looked amazing, she'd matured into a more beautiful version of her mother.

Part of him wanted to run over and say hello, but he stopped himself. He remembered what Saya had said when he left. How he had hurt her, and how she had hurt him. Instead, he simply stepped off the boat and turned his back to them, waiting to detach the mooring lines when Rika was aboard.

* * *

 **I am hoping to have chapter 6 out sometime in October, but I am starting back at university in a few days and need to focus on my studies.  
**

 **Special thanks to both Draco38 and MarshalZuhkov who have both taken the time to look at this during writing**

 **Please follow/favorite/review. Constructive criticism is more than welcome.**

 **Jango**

 **P.S. Yes, that is a Black Lagoon reference and yes that is a Girls und Panzer reference. No, we will not get characters from either! That's something for another day!**


	6. Chapter 6

_Ronin_

 _Chapter Six_

'There were worse places to be.' Kohta supposed.

He was currently sat on a comfortable bench on the sun deck of a heavily armed party boat cruising through the sun-blessed Kiisuido strait, surrounded by people he trusted and enjoying a breakfast of Seabass sashimi that he'd caught himself that morning.

"Kohta? Could you rub some sunscreen on my back for me?" Skye asked.

Yup. Many worse places to be.

Kohta set his sushi aside and picked up the bottle of suntan lotion. They'd seen a respectable number of watercraft, so Skye had, reluctantly, decided to sunbathe in a bikini. It was crisp white, whining in the sun. To Kohta's fashion trained eye, at least one two sizes too small for her soft, toned, curved body…

Bad thoughts Kohta. Evil thoughts.

Skye smirked. "I'm not getting any younger Kohta," she said without looking up. "And I'd hate to burn…"

"No ma'am!" Kohta replied loudly, knowing he'd been caught staring. He could see Rika and Dino inside smirking out of the corner of his eye. They'd been spending a lot of time together on the voyage over…

"Rika and Dino are getting on well," Kohta noted quietly as he began to massage sunscreen across Skye's soft muscular back.

"Hmmm" Skye purred contently. "He's already asked her out for drinks when we get back. Plus, he's a hottie, she's a hottie. It's going to happen." She shuddered contently. "Oh yeah, a little lower."

Kohta could _feel_ the smirks on Dino and Rika's faces getting larger as his hands worked closer and closer to Skye's well-proportioned ass. He paused as he reached them.

"I didn't tell you to stop," she said with a flirtatious smirk.

But Kohta didn't continue. He instead reached over for a towel and wiped his hands of the remaining sunscreen.

"Skye," He murmured. "We need to talk."

Skye sat up and looked at him. "About?"

"Mary," Kohta said uncomfortably. "Before we left, she… kissed me."

Skye's raised an eyebrow. "Did she?" She was intrigued. "And? How was it?"

"It was… good," Kohta admitted uneasily. "She was soft, and tasted like… cherries."

Skye scoffed once, then twice, then finally burst out laughing so hard It made her sides hurt. She ignored the hurt look Kohta shot at her and kept laughing, loud enough that Tex even briefly looked back from the helm in their direction.

"Really? Cherries?" Skye laughed, still trying to get a hold of herself.

"Hey! It was my first-time ok?!" Kohta retorted embarrassed.

"I know… I know," Skye replied while wiping a tear from her eye as she finally managed to get a hold of herself. "Sooo? What did you think?"

"I don't know what to think!" Kohta cried, surprising Skye with the desperation in his voice. "I've never even thought about _any_ girl as more than a friend since Saya! And now Mary comes out of nowhere and kisses me and I …"

"Whoa, big guy!" Skye interrupted, putting her arms up to stop him. "It was just a kiss!"

"What does that mean though?!" Kohta pleaded. Skye Sighed, was this really the same guy who didn't flinch at being shot at?

"Alright Kohta, let me tell you something." She placed a reassuring hand on Kohta's shoulder. "Girls are simple things. We like good men who are honest, and who will admit when they're lost."

Kohta stopped, processing what she said, all the while looking into her eyes. Her deep emerald eyes…

"Hey! Lovebirds!" Slater called, snapping them both back to the boat. "Gear up. Time to go."

…

They made land in Osaka less than an hour later, leaving the _Mutsuki_ tied up in the harbour with Slater and Tex to guard it while Skye, Dino and Kohta followed Rika down the pier.

The contractors were amazed to see so many hulls in the harbour. Some were just powerless boats that functioned as floating homes or offices, but there were dozens of small boats and sail yachts sailing in and out of harbour between the spider collection of jetties that jutted out from the shore. Apparently, there was more going on outside of their control than the government let on.

As they reached the end of the dock, they were approached by a man carrying a clipboard and a pen, followed by a bodyguard in a flak jacket.

"Name of the boat, occupants and two hundred credits docking fee please," the man said. Kohta and Skye glanced at each other. Apparently, even pirates had to pay parking fees.

Rika dug in her trouser pocket and produced three gold coins and held them up to the man. "Mutsuki, and what say we pay three hundred and forget the names?"

The toll collector looked at Rika for a moment who had, Dino could see, her jacket only loosely zipped to show off some of her ample cleavage. The man took the money and scribbled something on his clipboard.

"Welcome to the Osaka Freehold family Sato," he said before heading back to his small hut. Rika smiled and zipped up her jacket slightly before turning to Kohta and Skye.

"You two check out the harbour, see if you can find names on the list but _don't_ arouse suspicion. If you get into trouble, get back to the boat. Got it?"

"Got it," Kohta replied with a nod. For one of the contractors that would've been enough but Rika still pressed the point.

"Seriously, everyone on this dock is a killer," she insisted. "If you piss them off they'll…"

"We got it, thanks, _mom_ ," Skye snarked with a cheeky grin before grabbing Kohta by the wrist and pulling him along. "Come on Kohta, let's go find us some pirates."

Dino snickered both at the surprised face Kohta made as Skye dragged him away, but also the look of horror that Rika had. He shook his head and put a hand on her shoulder.

"Come on LT, let's go."

"Mom! _Mom!_ Oh, I am going to kill her when she gets back!" she ranted, spinning on her heels and grabbing Dino by the wrist and started dragging him towards town. "Come on big guy!"

Dino obediently followed her into the surprisingly crowded streets, eventually managing to slip her grasp and following her like an adult instead of being dragged like a disobedient child.

Osaka was an ancient city deep rooted in Japanese legend and history. Over time, it evolved over the years into a thriving metropolis. But when the plague hit, it hit Osaka hard. Like with most nations in Japan it was densely populated with little to no armaments to defend itself. But over time, people returned to the city, clearing out small sections of the bay area to call home. The small settlement rapidly expanded, its natural harbour being ideal for supporting fishermen, and more people began to flock to the city to trade with its inhabitants. Pretty soon, people started to build around the existing dilapidated structures, forming the new, narrow streets that Rika and Dino headed down.

They tried to dodge the street merchants trying to sell them clothes, fruit and general items from their stalls. Dino caught sight of an arms merchant and made a low whistle at the vast display of arms. They seemed to have everything; former Soviet bloc AKs, Chinese QBZ-95s, American M4s, Makarovs, Glocks, SiGs, Japanese type 89s, South Korean K2s, even an RPK and an MG3.

"Well, they certainly got the firepower," Dino muttered as he pushed his way through the streets. Rika shrugged.

"Those who tend to survive zombie apocalypses are those who have the most guns and ammo," she said. "And Asia has an excess at the moment."

Dino scoffed. "True that, love."

Rika lead him towards a bar across the junction at the market street, a tavern called _The Black Lotus_ that had been in business since before The Fall. Back then it had been a small family run bar catering to salarymen and their clients after work. Now it was a bar where pirate captains, traders and other less reputable types came to do business, at least for high-value expeditions.

Stepping inside was a relief, the heat, noise and smells of outside were gone, shut out by the thick concrete walls. The place was lit by open shutter windows and candlelight further back inside, no electric lights and few things that a sailor two hundred years ago wouldn't recognize, aside from the bar the drinks on offer. A few patrons sat at tables, a mix of hardened sea captains and a few younger men, maybe aspiring officers looking for a lieutenancy aboard one of the captain's crews.

They caught a few glares and curious eyes as they entered, but Rika ignored them and headed straight for the bar with the confidence of someone who'd done this before. Dino followed, keeping just behind her and ready to go for the SiG in his jacket.

"Bacardi," Rika ordered, dropping four gold coins on the worktop as she leant against the bar. "And two Kirin's."

The bartender nodded and set a shot glass on the bar and filled it with Bacardi. He watched as Rika necked the shot and spun the glass on the bar before catching it and setting it upside down on the bar. The bartender looked at her, before fetching the two beers without a word.

"I'll tell him you're here," the bartender mumbled as he set the brown beer bottles on the bar. He nodded towards an old tapestry that hung on the wall. "Wait in the back room."

Rika thanked him and took the two beers and headed towards the tapestry, Dino followed her cautiously. She pulled the tapestry aside, revealing an iron-bound oak doorway. Dino unlatched the lock and opened it, stepping into the dimly lit back room and holding it open for Rika. She walked in, passing Dino his beer as she passed before dropping herself into one of the chairs that lined the central oak table as if it was her own home. She knocked the top of her beer and toasted Dino.

"Well grab a seat Dino-man," she said with a smirk. "This won't take long."

Dino smiled as she downed some of her beer. Hot, deadly and drinks; his kind of woman.

"So, who're we meeting?" he asked, taking a seat next to her where he could cover the door.

"Yuri," Rika answered. "Former FSB spook out of Vladivostok with ties to Hotel Moscow. Now he trades in information; potential scavenging areas, VIP locations, and even brokers deals between various parties… and runs this bar."

"You trust him?"

Rika shrugged, "I trust his intel. Hasn't lead me wrong yet and he knows that I know where he lives. And that if anything happened to me… well, it wouldn't be pleasant."

"You think he knows anything?" Dino asked.

"If anyone does, he does," Rika replied. "I wouldn't be surprised if he was the one who tipped them off that Matsuzaki was an easy target."

Dino frowned and took a swig from his beer. He didn't like where this was going. He didn't trust spooks; never had, never would, not since one had lied and got his team killed in Afghanistan. And he'd read intel reports on the activities of Hotel Moscow in the Golden Triangle and the Pacific, and a spook tied to them was just asking for trouble.

A minute or so later, the door opened and a man in his late sixties, dressed in a black suit and black tinted glasses stepped inside, followed by an escort dressed in a light jacket.

"Hello, Yuri," Rika greeted with a smile. "It's been a while."

"It is good to see you again Rika," the old man replied while taking a seat opposite them. "It has been too long. I had thought the ghouls might finally have caught up with you."

"Not quite yet Yuri," Rika replied, "Though not for lack of trying." Yuri chuckled as his gaze shifted to Dino, scanning the man with a critical eye.

"And who is this strapping young man?" he asked. "A boyfriend perhaps?"

"Not yet," she said with a slightly sly smile. "Just a colleague."

"Ah, one of the Spartan PMC contractors perhaps?" Yuri asked. Dino flinched slightly as he felt his cover being blown. The old man smiled. "You have nothing to fear good sir, you are among friends, yes? You and your friends have been doing good work against the ghouls."

"We go where were sent and do what we can," Dino answered carefully. Yuri laughed and said something in Russian to his escort. The man nodded and left, returning a moment later with a tray with some glasses of clear liquid.

"Spoken like a true soldier!" Yuri replied happily, sliding a glass over to Rika and Dino. "Come! Come! A toast to new friends! Ura!"

Yuri knocked back his glass of vodka and Dino followed as Rika did the same with no hesitation. No one got poisoned, so Dino allowed himself to be swayed that this Russian _might_ not be about to kill him.

"Now then, to business," Yuri said, his smile disappeared as he looked at the two. "I believe I know why you are here."

"The Matsuzaki settlement," Rika stated. "It was attacked."

Yuri nodded. "I heard." He shook his head. "Good people, they did not deserve to die like that."

"You know what happened?" Dino asked.

"I do."

"You know who did it?"

Yuri nodded.

"Was it Hotel Moscow?" Rika asked, cutting to the chase.

Yuri smiled. "Balalaika is a lot of things, and there are few things she would not do. But in this case, no, she and Hotel Moscow were not involved. In fact, they have been very quiet of late."

'I doubt that.' Rika thought before asked. "So, who was it?"

Yuri Sighed. "A foolish young man who does not know how things work around here." He looked at Dino. "You must understand, I and many others did not want this to happen. They were honest people working an honest living who fed many mouths and filled many bellies round here. No one wanted this to happen."

"Do you have a name?" Dino asked.

"Alyeksandr Leonid Malakhov." Yuri took out a cigar from a case in his pocket and put in his mouth, his escort lighting it for him as he gently puffed on it. "He is only son of former General in the red army and Oligarch; Leonid Malakhov. He was a good man and a former comrade to myself and Balalaika in Afghanistan."

"Shit," Rika Sighed. "So, we can't whack the little bastard without pissing off the devil in high heels?"

"I would not say that," Yuri said, smiling at the analogy. "The old bull died years ago and the son is not his father. He would rather smoke cocaine with western strippers than learn about family business and honour." Yuri took another drag from his cigar.

"After the Mediterranean became too hot, Alyeksandr sailed here on the family yacht with a small fleet. He wishes to establish himself as power in region. He came to me and asked where he could find fishing boats."

"So, you sold out the Matsuzaki settlement," Dino deadpanned. Rika shot him a glare and Yuri fixed him in the eyes, his grandfatherly facade slipping slightly.

"It was a complicated situation," he replied firmly. "A debt of honour which he collected. I would advise you not to question matters of which you have no knowledge, young man."

There was an awkward silence for a moment before Rika broke it. "Do you know where we could find him?"

"Alas, I do not," Yuri replied, relaxing back into his previous aura. "He sends small boats into town to buy things, never comes himself."

"What kind of security does he have?" Dino asked.

"A few converted gunboats and hired guns. Nothing that would trouble operators of your calibre."

"I see," Rika said. She doubted that they weren't going to get anything more out of him without this turning _very_ ugly. She finished her beer and rose to her feet. "Thank you for your time, Yuri. So, what will this cost me?"

"This time? Nothing," Yuri replied holding up a hand. "Just make sure the little shit gets what's coming to him."

Rika smirked devilishly. "With pleasure Yuri. Dino, let's go."

Dino stood from his chair and followed Rika to the door as Yuri refilled his vodka glass from a hip flask.

"I wish you good luck. Ни пу́ха, ни пера́, comrades," He toasted as the two-field past Yuri's escort and the door shut behind them.

"So, what do we do now?" Dino asked as he and Rika left the bar.

"We get back to the boat, meet up with Kohta and Skye and see what they found," Rika said as she and Dino dove back into the chaos and noise of the market street.

"Sound's good to me," Dino replied as a merchant shoved a melon in his face.

…

"Mom? You know she's going to kill you for that right?" Kohta laughed as soon as he saw Rika drag Dino off in a fury. Skye just smiled sweetly at him.

"Aww, how sweet that you're concerned for my safety," she replied in what Kohta called her 'innocent Highschool student' voice. "But I've got my knight in shining armour to protect me."

"Who? Me?" Kohta guessed with a knowing reluctant sigh.

"No, Krieger!" She laughed. Kohta hung his head in despair and shook his head.

"Shall we get on with the job?"

"Awww. You're no fun!"

"Skye…"

"Fine..." she groaned, producing a supermarket notepad from inside her top. It had been given to them by the government and contained the names and hull numbers of all the boats stolen from Matsuzaki. They had written it in pencil so that they could just dump it overboard and let the waves take it if they needed to ditch it.

"What's our cover?" Skye asked quietly, switching back to serious contractor mode.

"Two former students looking for work as deckhands," Kohta said. "We were on a ship from Hawaii, there was an outbreak at sea, we jumped ship. Washed ashore and made our way here. Picked these up from Pearl Harbour," He gestured to the M4's they had slung over their back. It also wasn't entirely untruthful, they had indeed picked up some M4 carbines while they were laid over in Pearl for refuelling when flying over from America.

Together, they spent some time wandering the harbour looking like a lost couple trying to find their way, while they clandestinely looked at the names and numbers of every fishing boat in port, looking for a match.

And after a while, they found one. A thirty-meter commercial fishing vessel named _The Ocean's Maiden_. Her blue paint was grease stained and her hull spotted with brown patches of rust, but it was the same boat. A group of armed men were working her decks, finishing securing equipment and preparing to cast off.

"Follow my lead," Kohta said. He pulled a small black box from his back pocket, thumbed the activation button and concealed it in his palm. It was a satellite tracking beacon that was issued to all contractors with two functions; green for all ok, and red for 'come in guns blazing!' as Tex had once put it. He thumbed the green setting and kept it in his hand as he climbed the gangplank.

"Hey! What the hell are you doin'?!" A bald-headed man shouted in English down the deck, starting forwards towards the two. He was six foot and muscular, stripped to the waist with a pistol on one hip and a fish gutting knife on the other.

"Hi, there!" Kohta greeted with a friendly smile. "I'm Hiro and this is Jess. We're looking for work. Can we speak to the captain or..."

"Get the hell off my boat!" The man demanded angrily, pointing off the side of the ship.

"Hey, look come on man," Kohta tried to reason. "We're just looking for some work. We're experienced deckhands…"

The man's fist interrupted Kohta, smashing into him across his jaw, spinning him around and throwing him to the deck. Skye screamed convincingly and Kohta tasted blood in his mouth. As he tried to push himself up, he slipped the tracking beacon onto a piece of machinery on the deck.

"Didn't you hear me you dumb shit?!" The bald man demanded, pulling his pistol and levelling it at Kohta's head. "Leave the guns, and get the _fuck_ off my boat!"

"Alright! Alright!" Skye shouted, feigning terror as she helped Kohta to his feet and they slowly surrendered their M4s, handing them over to two other crew members who'd come up to join their captain. They took the carbines and turned them on their former owners, tracking the two of them as they stepped back onto the pier and burst out laughing as they turned and ran down the pier.

Skye and Hirano ran out of sight of the boat, stopping a short way away from where they'd left Dino and Rika.

"You plant a tracker?" Skye asked, quickly catching her breath.

"Yeah," Kohta replied, catching his own breath a moment later. "We'll have their location for the next ninety-six hours."

"Good," She nodded, and then she looked at him with concern at the growing bruise on his jaw. "You ok?"

"Yeah, I'm good," Kohta replied with a smile, placing his hand on his jaw and moving it around to check it was still in place. "I've met zeds that hit harder than that guy."

Skye smiled softly. She loved how Kohta could always smile at anything, even when hurt.

"Come on," she said, taking him by the arm. "Let's get back to the boat and get Slater to take a look at that jaw."

They started down the dock and Kohta chuckled. "Keep talking like that and people might think you care."

She smirked at him sidewise and slipped her hand into his.

"Who said I don't?"

…

Twelve hours later, they everyone was back aboard the _Mutsuki_ and the crew had taken her several miles offshore with clear lines of sight by radar and the naked eye. They wanted to be alone when they reported back to Tokyo. Tex rigged up a satellite uplink, an achievement in of itself considering how few functioning satellites there were left, and reported what they'd found in Osaka while Slater kept track of the beacon Kohta had planted on _The Ocean's Maiden_.

 _"What is your status Tex?"_ Lail asked, his voice was grainy over the uplink. Tex shrugged.

"Kohta's took a kisser to the jaw, but he's had worse. Other than that, we're good," He replied he glanced over at Slater. "What's the plan with this Malakhov character?"

 _"The prime minister's orders are kill-capture,"_ Lail said running a hand through his hair, _"Unfortunately, there's a problem."_

"How?" Tex guessed. Lail nodded.

 _"Our second wave is still ninety-six hours out. Until it gets here we have no significant naval or aerial assets capable of mounting a board and search operation."_

"What about the SDF? Surely they have some hulls or helos we could use?"

 _"They do,"_ He said, _"They've agreed to lend us the Hokata. It's a Coast Guard cutter, fast and one of the last ones they have. We're scraping up everyone we have with any naval experience to crew her, but it'll be on you to board and seize the targets."_

"Understood," Tex replied. "We'll be ready."

 _"We're loading her with boarding gear for you and your men, as well as Grey team who will be joining you. For now, head to the coordinates we're sending you for rendezvous, and get ready for a fight."_

"Understood Colonel."

 _"Good luck Tex. Tokyo out."_

The link was cut and Tex slumped in his chair. "You get those coordinates?"

"Sure did," Slater replied. "I'll get us going. You get some sleep."

"Thanks, partner," Tex Sighed. He stood and headed for his hammock. "Try not to steer us into any rocks this time."

…

They rendezvoused with the _Hokata_ the next morning. The contractors cross decked over from the _Mutsuki_ and a civilian crew boarded to take her back to Tokyo. The contractors were taken below, the _Hokata_ 's mission bay had been given over to them as an impromptu mix of barracks, armoury, and briefing room.

Grey team were already there, decked out in black BDUs for the upcoming op. They were a six-man contractor team specialising in CQB and naval boarding actions, Tex and Dino had done time with them before and Kohta and Skye had passed the requisite SEAL board and search training course at Coronado, the perfect team to board a hostile ship.

As the two teams exchanged pleasantries and banter, McCowan entered the mission bay accompanied by a uniformed Coast Guard techie who plugged a laptop into the room's big screen. Photos of a large luxury yacht, an oil tanker, a flotilla of smaller boats and an island chain.

"Alright guys, listen in," The large Scot called as he began the briefing. "This is gonna be a tough one. Intel on this Op comes from Lieutenant Minami's informant and local assets we have in the area. The target is Alyeksandr Malakhov, aboard the family super yacht Greek registration number 57764; _The Katyusha_. Accompanying her, we have identified this fuel tanker another 6 gunboats armed with HMG's and small arms. If possible, we would like to seize the tanker and those gunboats for our own use.

"Grey team and I will board and sweep the tanker. Tex, you and your boys will board the _Katyusha._ Expect small crews and security details."

"Rules of engagement, Staff?" Dino asked.

"Security team's expendable," He replied. "Take the crew alive if you can but don't risk yourselves or any hostages."

"What are we doing with hostages boss?" one of Grey team asked.

"Secure 'em and deal with them later. The plan is more or less once we've got the boats to sail them back to Tokyo."

"What if the gunboats don't surrender when we take the tanker and the yacht?" Kohta asked.

"We're hoping they will surrender after we take their flagship," McCowan stated. "But if they don't, the _Hokata_ is going to come in and use the 20 mil Vulcan to turn them into Swiss cheese. Right, now the attack plan…"

The briefing went on for another hour as they discussed the assault, board and seize plans, the timing of the attack, what if contingencies and emergency exfil plans in case it all went sidewise. After everything was covered though, the teams dispersed and Tex's team went to gear up.

They switched their civilian clothes for black combat fatigues and all broke out the same company issue black plate carriers and assault plating that protected all the vital organs. Normally the contractors would use their own kit for work in the field; kit they'd assembled and tailored to their own preferences and strengths. But when it came to boarding boats, the close spaces limited manoeuvring options, limited places to take cover and evade enemy fire, they wore the company kit.

It was hot, heavy, uncomfortable kit. Good luck to you if you fell overboard in it, you had no chance of getting it off in time before you drowned or the sharks got to you. But it saved lives clearing ships. Zombies couldn't bite through it, even if they were swarming you and piling on top of you, they couldn't bite through the Kevlar woven fatigues or armour. And the ballistic body armour was rated to stop a .44 magnum at point blank range. It was the best they got, and it would keep them alive.

As for weapons, the contractors had cooked up something special: When Spartan PMC first started moving into boarding and clearing larger ships such as oil tankers and cruise liners, the contractors needed a compact assault weapon ideal for killing zombies at close quarters, so they developed the M20 Widow Maker. The M20 was a standard AR-15 lower receiver and action fitted with a collapsible tanker stock and an eight-inch integrally suppressed barrel with a surrounding keymod rail; an excellent weapon for CQB. Though most contractors preferred the Saiga shotguns for mass zombie clearing, the M20 was reserved for when more finesse was required.

Kohta stuffed preloaded magazines, loaded with a mix of subsonic and hollow point rounds, into magazine pouches in silence before moving on to his pistols. He was taking both the SiG and the Nighthawk. He'd learnt from valuable experience that pulling a new weapon was always faster than reloading, and speed killed. Either you, your friends, or your enemy.

"Nice pieces," A voice said from above him. Kohta looked up to see Lieutenant Minami standing over him, looking down at his pistols. "Where'd you get the Mk25?"

Kohta looked away and ripped open a can of 9mm and started loading the SiG's mags. "I didn't go to Coronado for the sun, LT."

She sat down next to him. "Bit young to be a SEAL," she said.

"I'm not, Ma'am," Kohta replied. "Trained with them though."

"BUD/S?" She asked. Kohta sighed; he wasn't in the mood for an interrogation about his qualifications.

"Part of it, Ma'am. Also, was also trained by the SEALs for board and clear, by members of the SAS for Escape and Evasion and Sniper work, and hand to hand by an Israeli Krav Maga instructor." He slotted a loaded mag into his MK25, racked the slide and shoved it into the cross-pull holster with a satisfying click, before looking Rika in the eyes with a hard stare. "I have boarded countless small boats and cleared seven cruise liners. I am more than qualified to be on this mission. Lieutenant."

Rika looked at him for a moment, before her lips began to twitch upwards in a slight smile.

"I wasn't doubting your qualifications, Hirano-san," she said as she stood up and started away from him. "I just wanted to know what kind of man you were."

* * *

 **Chapter seven to follow in time.**

 **Please Review/Favourite/Follow.**

 **Jango**


	7. Chapter 7

_Ronin_

 _Chapter Seven_

The black painted zodiacs skipped across the black water as they powered towards their targets, contractors crammed aboard and huddled low to blend in with the boat and to try and make it look like just another boat entering the lagoon, and not one filled with heavily armed raiders about to board and prosecute a target.

So far, the plan was going well. The _Hokata_ was undetected and had concealed herself on the far side of the island chain from both electronic and visual detection, but still ready to come in Vulcan blazing should the need require.

The target lagoon was large, and sheltered, a sensible place for a fleet of ocean-going vessels to put in for an extended time, and parked in its centre was the target tanker and _The Katyusha._

She was bigger than they'd expected; a 271-foot-long floating palace. 4 Decks above the water line, visible external watercraft, full radar suite and multiple stateroom cabins lining each side of the ship. They could just about make out some armed hostiles patrolling the decks, a night shift. They hadn't been detected yet.

Grey team waved off and headed towards the tanker, while the second zodiac carrying the contractors, designated as _Bravo_ Team, continued towards _The Katyusha_. Her stateroom lights were dark and only the navigation and a few deck lights were on. Unless the guards had night vision, they wouldn't see them till it was too late, but they would hear them.

Slater gunned the zodiac's outboard engine, speeding them up and kicking a fresher, harsher wave of salty spray at the contractors. Kohta was suddenly thankful for his helmet's mounted visor and raspatory face mask; they protected him from the cold spray, and he hated getting sea water in his eyes.

 _"Thirty seconds,"_ Slater called, his voice buzzing over the TEAMCOM through the headsets in the team's helmets.

" _Roger."_ Tex rumbled. There were a few soft _snicks_ as the contractor's eased their weapon's off. The zodiac slowed as it approached the yachts aft sun deck, a water level feature that would normally be used for diving off and launching or receiving small craft, but in this case would be the contractor's infill point.

Slater cut the engine and they drifted in, with only the sound of the waves slapping against the inflatable hull signaling their approach. One guard appeared from inside, lighting a cigarette as he came out to see the approaching boat.

Kohta raised his M20 and squeezed the trigger twice as the red dot centered on the man's chest. Both rounds connected and the man fell back, his smoke slipping from between his fingers.

The boat bumped against the yacht and the contractor's disembarked, jogging up the stairs in near silence with weapon's scanning for targets. A second guard appeared as they reached the top of the laminated wood stairs. A mix of surprise and horror flashed across his face as his mind processed the entirely black-clad figures before Dino shot him, his neck and chest silently exploded in red gore as the subsonic hollow point round shredded his soft tissue.

" _Hokata, Bravo team,"_ Tex reported in. " _Team on deck and going internal. Two contacts neutralized rear deck. Out."_ He waved the team forward and they continued inside, flicking on red filtered weapon lights to conserve their night vision.

The inside of Katyusha was lavish. The aft half of her main deck was entirely given over to a lavishly decorated living and dining area complete with crisp white leather sofas, oak tables with satin table clothes and a well-stocked wet bar that wouldn't look out of place in the Playboy mansion.

"Slater, Skye, Dino, sweep below," Tex ordered. "Rika and Kohta, on me."

Slater and Skye disappeared down a staircase below decks while Tex and Kohta pushed forwards. They pushed forward from the living room and came to a grand staircase, and just off from it, a public bathroom and even a beauty salon before they moved into an area of cabins.

"Sweep and clear, I'll set security," Tex whispered. He stopped and turned around, covering their rear as Rika and Kohta moved up to the first cabin.

This was where it could all go wrong. Up until now, they were in stealth and uncompromised. But what was behind this door could change that in a moment. All it took was one man or woman to scream loudly, or someone to pull the trigger on a unsuppressed weapon and that was it. The entire boat would be on alert and their job would become ten times harder.

Kohta gingerly tested the door handle. It had a key card lock but was, thankfully, unlocked. He nodded at Rika and she raised her weapon at the door, ready to move in. Kohta dipped his head slowly as a countdown: 3… 2… 1! and pushed the handle down and inwards. The door opened silently and Rika moved into the dark, air condition chilled room.

There were three women huddled together on the bed. All were young, pretty, bruised and wearing nothing but swimsuits and underwear. A quick sweep of the room revealed no weapons, so the two contractors extracted themselves in silence, closing the door behind them and leaving the women none the wiser for there having been there.

One by one, they swept three more cabins. More of the same; young to middle-aged women some with bruises, some in varying stages of pregnancy, wearing next to nothing but huddled together. But as they approached the last room, they could hear sounds for inside. Bed springs, moaning and something else… Rika's eye's widened and a shot of adrenaline shot through her as her brain recognized the sound. She'd heard it before when busting underground brothels in Kabukichō. She tried the door. It was locked.

"Bravo team, standby to go loud," Rika said into the mic. She turned to Kohta. "Kick it."

Kohta stepped up, took a deep breath and kicked the door hard, throwing his full weight at it just next to the handle where the door was weakest. The laminated wood door splintered, cracked and burst inwards under Kohta's heavy boot. He and Rika moved in with weapons raised.

There were two women huddled in the corner terrified, and another woman tied down and gagged on the bed, her clothing torn off and scattered across the room. Over her was a large, muscular man with his trousers' down around his ankles. Everyone looked in horror as the door was smashed in and two black armoured figures burst in.

"JSDF! Get on the fucking floor!" Kohta shouted, his rifle trained on the man.

"WHAT THE FUCK?!" The man shouted, fumbling for something on his trousers. Kohta rushed forward and punched him in the throat, knocking him from the bed and onto the floor. The man was choking but managed to pull a black shape out of his pocket.

"Gun!" Kohta shouted and he fired, the three-round burst shredded the man's face like an axe to a watermelon. The women screamed as Kohta shot the man and he twitched, then died. Kohta grabbed the dropped pistol, an old Tokarev, and shoved it in his back pocket. "Let's move!"

Rika turned to the panicking women. "Stay here! Do not come out till we say so!" They nodded frightenedly as Rika and Kohta moved out and onto the next room. Tex moved up with them.

"Bravo Team Two, status?" Tex radioed as they moved back to the grand staircase.

 _"Engine room secure, Tex,"_ Dino reported back. _"Three crew members surrendered."_

"Zip-tie 'em and secure the bridge. We're going after target alpha."

" _Copy. Out."_

Kohta moved to the staircase, swept it, and signalled all clear. Tex motioned them forwards. Kohta took point and lead them up the flight of stairs. Rika brought up the rear, their boots muffled by the fake wool carpets that matted the stairs.

Kohta froze on halfway across the upper landing. He pointed up the stairs and tapped his left ear. Two ununiformed men appeared at the top of the stairs, talking to one another and relaxed, cradling MP5 submachine guns as if they'd watched a few too many bad war movies.

Kohta and Tex opened fire. The walnut wall behind them became postmarked with bullet holes and marred with blood. One of the pulled his MP5's trigger as he fell, letting off a long burst of unsuppressed automatic gunfire which echoed throughout the ship and across the lagoon. If they didn't know the contractors were here before, they did now.

"We're compromised!" Tex squawked over the mission channel. "Go loud!"

Kohta and Rika stomped up the stairs and turned: Kohta went left, towards the VIP stateroom. Rika faced right, towards the bridge.

"Left clear!"

"Right clear!"

"Hallway clear!" Tex acknowledged. "Move up."

They turned down the hallway and headed aft. They were on the bridge deck now and came to a wooden door with an eye hole and a polished brass plate that read _'Presidential Suite'_.

It wasn't an ideal breaching situation. There could be any number of hostiles and hostages inside. So far they had seen hardly any of the cutthroats or crew they'd expected, and not even close to the number of hostages that they'd been told to expect. There might be guards, there might be human shields… and they had orders to take the target alive.

Tex kicked the door in.

He took the room in in a moment. He was moving into a lavishly decorated apartment. There was a wet bar stocked with clear and amber filled bottles. The room was dominated by an exceedingly large, round bed covered in red and white silk sheets. A large panoramic window leading out onto a sun deck with loungers and a hot tub replaced one wall and had white satin curtains partially covering it.

There were around ten women on the bed surrounding a single handsome man in his 30s, who from the look of him, made good use of the beauty spa they'd found below decks.

"JSDF!" Rika shouted as she moved in with Kohta and Tex, weapons trained on the man in the middle. "Get on the floor!"

The women scattered, practically diving off the bed with their hands up. The man remained on the bed, seemingly too stunned to move.

"Alexander Malakhov," Rika stated. "You are under arrest for kidnapping, theft of government property, murder and crimes against humanity. This is your one chance to surrender peacefully."

Alexander was stuttering something incomprehensible, his eyes darting between the three heavily armed persons stood at the foot of his bed. Each of them had a red weapon mounted laser hovering over him, ready to turn him into swiss cheese. He glanced over at his bedside table.

Tex followed Alexander's glance to the bedside table. Maybe there was a weapon hidden there.

"Son, don't even think about it," Tex warned. "I will drop you before you can make that dive."

Alexander looked at Tex, then the draws, then back at Tex, especially eyeing his weapon and how it was pointing at his chest, ready for a burst centre mass.

Alexander put his hands up, practically shaking in his boxers.

Rika shot forwards and practically threw the Russian billionaire playboy off his bed and face first to the deck, pinning him in place while she cuffed him. Kohta went over to the table and, sure enough, found a Glock hidden in the top draw. After policing it, he went over to the women and started apprising them of the situation in Japanese. They all looked relieved and some even started to cry.

Tex got on the radio to inform the others, "Bravo Team Two, PriSkye target secure. Report status. Over."

" _Bravo Team One. Bridge secure."_ Dino reported. _"The captain surrendered and tells me there were only a few pirates aboard and most of them are asleep in the VIP staterooms below. Over."_

"Roger that. Go below and take them out," Tex replied, he glanced over at the group of women, some of whom were trying to hug and kiss Kohta for saving their lives while he was trying, and failing, to keep them off him.

"We'll secure the civilians and I'll inform Grey team and the Hokata of the situation. Keep any crew or hostages in their place until we've fully secured the boat. Out."

…

The last six hours had been given over to frenetic 'post-assault' activity.

Grey team had secured the tanker a few minutes after Bravo secured _The Katyusha_. After realizing that their two most important ships had been captured, a few of the gun/fishing boats had tried and failed, to board and retake them. So far, between the contractors and the coast guard, they'd either recaptured or sank twelve of the missing sixteen boats, with Coastguard and JSDF boats and helos hunting for the remaining four.

More importantly. They'd rescued sixteen of the women abducted from Matsuzaki as well as another _twenty_ they'd found either on the yacht or on the boats. Most said they'd been abducted or 'rescued' on route, and every one of them admitted to having been raped. Most were also in varying stages of pregnancy, and they assumed the Matsuzaki women would turn out to be too. One woman, an Indian woman who'd been picked up adrift in the Indian Ocean, had even gone into labor when Dino kicked the door in on the locked machine room she'd been hiding in. She'd been transferred to the sick bay on the _Hokata_ to deliver her baby.

But the rape was far from the worse thing they'd found out when they'd boarded.

It turned out, that many of the women had delivered babies on the voyage over to the Pacific. Alexander had ordered that the babies be thrown overboard to the sharks, that they "Weren't going to waste food on people who couldn't pull their weight." The slimy bastard denied it, of course, claiming it was the conveniently dead head of security that Kohta had shot mid-rape in his cabin who'd done it. Either way, the contractors had bound, gagged and locked him in a machine room under guard until he'd been taken over to the _Hokata_ for his own protection… although he'd 'accidentally' fallen down the stairs a few times getting there… which was far less than he deserved.

More Coast Guard vessels and crews had arrived to bring the survivors and boats back to Tokyo and relieve the contractors. In the meantime, though, they were busying themselves with helping with feeding the now freed hostages a decent meal from the yacht's stores while the Coast Guard and crew, who also claimed they'd been held hostage, get the former pirate fleet sailed back to Tokyo.

"Hey Kohta, catch."

Kohta looked up just in time to catch an incoming bottle of whiskey with Skye standing nearby with one of her own. It was an unopened bottle of 1963 Woodford Reserve, a _very_ good whiskey.

"Figured Mary owed you a replacement for drinking your last one," Skye said as she landed in the sofa next to him.

"Thanks," he said, before stuffing it carefully into his daysack which had been bought over with some of his other kit. "But isn't that looting?"

Skye shrugged, "Perks of being the conquering hero." She put her own bottle in her pocket and relaxed. "Hungry?"

"Starving."

"Galley's still got some food left." Skye stood up and offered Kohta a hand up. "Take a girl to lunch?"

Kohta took her hand and they headed below to the lounge where a buffet lunch was being served. All around the lounge were the hostages who'd been rescued, enjoying what appeared to be a scramble medley of various fish, dehydrated eggs, and vegetables from the ship's stores.

A young woman around their age was serving and looked up to see the two young contractors. She smiled at them as she took their plates and ladled a larger than normal portion into each of their plates. "Thank you for saving us," She said gratefully with a smile.

"You're welcome," Kohta replied, returning her smile and causing the girl to blush slightly as she handed Kohta back his plate and he and Skye headed off to find somewhere to eat.

"Flirt," Skye whispered as they walked away.

He knew she didn't mean it. It was one of the joy's they got out of contract. The job wasn't all murdering zombies, capturing rapists and training ungrateful assholes. There was a fair share of that, of course. But almost as often, people were genuinely thankful for what you did for them. It was that feeling that you'd helped someone and they appreciated it that made contracting the best job they'd ever had.

"Eat outside?" Skye suggested. "Sun's out."

"Sure, why not."

Out on the deck, it was still slightly chilly but getting warmer as the sun climbed higher into the sky. It was technically still summer, being the back end of August, but the weather was just beginning to turn colder. Since the fall there had been a noted climate shift; summers were hotter and winters were much, much colder. There were lots of theory's; nuclear fallout, fewer carbon emissions, wrath of God… the list went on.

"So, what do you reckon they'll do with this then?" Skye mused, gesturing around at the yacht. "Can't imagine it'll be a good fishing boat."

"Probably gut her and refit her as a harbour queen," Kohta guessed. It took a lot of resources to keep a boat like this going, and a superyacht was a luxury Japan could ill afford. "Might just tie her up and leave her 'till they need her."

Skye nodded and thought for a moment. "You know it's not a stupid idea."

"What?"

"Getting a yacht." Kohta looked at her slightly confused. Skye smiled and elaborated. "As a retirement plan. Get a yacht, not one as big as this, find a safe place to anchor and relax. I mean think about it, it's got a power source, filtration system for water and if the undead come knocking you can just push offshore for a bit."

Kohta thought about it as he munched on some medley. "It's not a bad idea," he admitted. "The problem would be keeping it fuelled and maintained. If something goes wrong and you can't fix it, then you're in trouble."

"Yeah, I guess," Skye replied before eating a bit of her medley. "So, what's your retirement plan then Kohta?"

"I haven't really thought about it," Kohta admitted. "Never thought I'd live long enough to retire."

"But assuming you do…" Skye pressured.

"But assuming I do," Kohta continued, pausing for a moment to think. "I think I'd go for the simple, quiet life. Find myself a small home in the mountains with access to society but far enough out that I can see anyone coming."

"Family?" Skye asked. Kohta shrugged.

"Never really thought about it until recently," he said, "But yeah. Someday I could see myself with a family. Assuming I found the right partner."

Skye smiled and raised her glass of water.

"To retirement," she toasted. Kohta raised his glass.

"To family," he replied.

…

As morning broke over Japan the day after _The Katyusha_ made harbour, four more ships were sighted entering Tokyo Bay.

One of them was a medium sized cargo ship with its holds filled to near capacity with containers and a half dozen helicopters lashed securely to her top deck. The other three were smaller, more graceful ships whose lines suggested a kinship with yachts, but who's battleship grey hulls, radar arrays, missile tubes and autocannon turrets, denoted that even to the untrained eye that these were warships.

All four of the ships flew the same pair of flags from their masts; the American stars and stripes above a plain black flag embossed with a stylised white Spartan helmet.

They were challenged from the shore by flashed Morse code and hailed over the standard maritime radio frequencies.

" _Unidentified vessels in the vicinity of Yokosuka naval base, this is the Japanese Coast Guard. Acknowledge and identify. Over."_

A few moments passed and the lead ship responded.

" _Japanese Coast Guard. This is Spartan PMC Patrol ship zero-one-zero SPMC Athens leading Taskforce Wolf. Over_."

" _Roger Athens. We've been expecting you. Welcome to Japan. Standby to receive local pilots. Acknowledge."_

" _Copy Coast Guard. Standing by to receive local pilots. Additional, request permission to transfer Helo assets ashore. Over."_

" _Acknowledged Athens. All Taskforce Wolf vessels come to heading zero-zero-three for ten knots to facilitate ship to shore helo transfer."_

" _Copy Coast Guard, come heading zero-zero-three for ten knots. Commencing ship to shore Helo transfer. Standing by on local pilots. Out."_

…

Meanwhile, in his office, Prime Minister Takagi was meeting with Colonel Lail to discuss future operations over some tea and coffee.

"We'll need a few days to unload of our equipment and get it operational," Lail stated as Saeko poured him another cup of tea. "But we should be able to start conducting longer range operations almost immediately."

"Good," Takagi replied. He produced a folder from his desk, sealed with the seal of the prime minister of Japan. "This is a list of priority missions we've been unable to undertake due to lack of expertise or capability. We would be grateful if you could perform some of these operations on our behalf."

"It'll be our pleasure Prime Minister," Lail replied, putting the folder aside. "Are there any, in particular, you'd like us to do first?"

"As a matter of fact…"

…

Kohta, Skye and Mary were waiting impatiently at the airport. With them, much more patiently, were Dino, Tex, Slater and Rika.

They and another group of other contractors, SDF and airport staff were waiting for the Spartan PMC helicopters to arrive. Flying in with them several more contractor fireteams that they had been sent to greet, but the three younger contractors weren't waiting for them.

They weren't waiting long before the sky was filled with the deafening sound of the deep _whup-whup-whup_ of approaching helicopters, and four grey and two dark green dots appeared out of the morning haze.

The grey dots materialized into MH-60S Knighthawks, Spartan PMC's primary multirole helicopter. Built on the proven MH60 platform, the Knighthawk had more in common with its army brother the Blackhawk than the base Navy Seahawk. The Knighthawk used the Blackhawk's airframe, which provides the larger cabin double-doors needed for cargo and passenger transport, enabling contractors to embark and disembark quickly while also retaining the Blackhawk's provisions for mounting the external pylons to carry stores and equipment while also incorporating the Seahawk's more powerful engines, hover-in-flight refuelling and fuel dumping capability, rotor system, automatic rotor blade folding system, as well as a rescue hoist for search and rescue and hot extraction missions.

They were ideal multi-mission aircraft especially for search and rescue and insertion missions. They could carry up to 20 people or 9,000 lbs of external cargo and were excellent at pulling people off rooftops or dropping teams into areas.

The two remaining helicopters, however, were _not_ Search and Rescue birds.

The Paramount Group Nighthawk, named the 'Thunderbird' by Spartan to avoid confusion, was essentially an upgraded and westernized MI-24 Hind gunship, specifically designed for Counter-Insurgency, and Search and Destroy missions. It could hunt day or night in almost any weather, carry up to twelve fully armed contractors and support them with a wide range of armaments including; Hellfire missiles, 57mm or 80mm rockets, laser guided bombs and a chin-mounted 20mm autocannon that was slaved to the pilot's helmet. They just had to glance at a target, squeeze the trigger, and the target was gone.

It was a tool for killing. Nothing more.

There was more kit still to come of course, either packed away in their cargo ship's hold or being flow in via C5 in the next day or so.

But it wasn't the helos or the gunships that Kohta, Skye and Mary were excited for, although Kohta would be lying if he wasn't excited to reprise his role as a helo door gunner again. No, the reason they were excited was currently in the pilot's seat of the second Thunderbird, creatively callsigned Thunderbird Two, and was currently bringing his flying death machine into land on the nearby apron.

It wasn't long before the helo's started to spin down and the ground crews ran out to attend to them. As they did, Kohta, Mary and Skye headed for their boy's Thunderbird.

The man who climbed out the cockpit was young, scarcely twenty years old, with jet black hair, tanned skin, brown eyes and an angular, handsome face. He was skinny and wore an Olive-green flight suit with tac vest and a flight helmet with the words 'Skinny P' artistically stenciled on it, stuffed under his arm.

"Hey Guys," he said with his cheeky smile. "Did ya miss me?"

"Haha," Kohta laughed as he clasped arms and bro-hugged him. "Of course we did Harry, We've had to put up with Tex's driving since the old fart can't drive on the right side of the road half the time!"

"Hey! I'm not an old fart! Asshole!"

The young contractors laughed together as they often had. These four together were the four youngest contractors employed by Spartan PMC, the survivors of a trying and gruelling program that had been initiated to train young men and women with pre-existing extraordinary ability's or skills as soldiers to the fight the undead. Some had died, others quit. But these remaining four were closer than brothers and sisters now, and god help anyone who got in their way.

"Excuse me, sir," an older gentleman who looked to be in his late fifty's or early sixties approached the group. He too wore a flight suit and had a flight helmet with 'Alfred' stenciled on it. "But I believe we have an arrival briefing to attend."

"Right you are Oswald." Harry turned back to his friends and high fived each of them. "I'll see you guys later. I presume you've found a good bar in town?"

"Yeah, but we'll have to meet you there," Skye said sadly. "With the fresh wave of contractors they're dividing us up into fireteams and we've got a briefing on 'future operations'. Whatever that means."

"Alright, we'll catch you later," Harry smiled, giving them a casual two-finger Boy Scout salute. "Let's go Oswald."

"Of course, sir."

…

When the briefings were finished that evening, the contractor's congregated as they usually did in _The Jasmine Dragon,_ a drinking house that was run by survivors and endorsed by the government. Generally speaking, whenever anyone scavenged any alcohol in any reasonable quality, they would take a share and the rest would end up here. It was a favourite place among survivors, contractors, off-duty SDF and even the local internal police.

When Kohta, Skye and Mary arrived, the place was half full of late night Tokyo residents drinking and chatting. The place had been somewhat sound matted to keep noise discipline, but there still wasn't any music playing. They found Tex, Dino and Harry at a table in the corner nursing some bottles of Budweiser.

"Sorry we're late," Mary shrugged apologetically as they approached, pointing at Skye and Kohta. "Those two were getting mobbed by hero worship again."

"Hero worship?" Harry asked, sliding some Budweiser's over to them as the new arrivals sat down.

"You didn't hear?" Dino asked, he then cleared his throat and continued with the added drama of a fantasy epic. "The mighty Sumo, slayer of zombies and bane of babes, single handily assaulted the floating palace of a Russian oligarch! Storming aboard with a knife between his teeth, he freed the captives and killed the guards before taking the traitorous Ivan alive for questioning, before being jumped upon by his harem of followers!"

Everyone laughed as Kohta's head hit the wooden table with a despairing _thud_!

"Really?" Harry snickered, looking at Kohta's head with amusement.

"No," Skye said, "but he did shoot a guy mid-rape."

"That I did do," Kohta cut in. "Well, no...I punched him first, then shot him."

"Fuckin' 'ell. You've been kickin' arse mate," Harry applauded, raisin his bud as he stood up and shouted. "Everyone raise their glass to the Sumo! Stopping rapes and kicking arse!"

Every contractor in the bar stood and raised their drinks towards Kohta with a smile. "SUMO!"

Kohta laughed and shook his head. Of all the damned nicknames…

"Hey, Where's Slater?" Mary asked, looking around and seeing their teammate was absent.

"Transferred," Tex said, placing his beer down. "Finally got his own fireteam command."

"Good for him," Mary said. Slater had been after his own command for a while, and with the reorganization of the contractors into individual combat fireteams, it was his chance for a command. Tex, Dino, Mary, Kohta and Skye had been grouped together as Fireteam Spectre, numbered 1 to 5 respectively.

The group talked for a while and had a few drinks, catching up swapping stories from when they'd been separated. After a while and a half dozen more beers Kohta stood up and turned towards the bathroom.

"I'm gonna take a leak," He said as he disappeared off.

The bathroom of the establishment was a luxurious and simple affair; a small tiled room in the back. The urinal was a simple open-topped drain that flowed to a sewer access out back. Along the back wall, there was a line of stalls with a shelf that you sat on, under which there was a bucket that could be removed from the outside. The smell was incredible, but without running water for most of the city, it was the best you could hope for.

Kohta had just got his babymaker out when two large men came in, both around Kohta's height and roughly about his age.

"I didn't believe it when I heard it." One of them said. Kohta looked him up and down. He looked familiar...

"Kohta Hirano." The man continued a large smirk. "The little piggy himself finally came home."

"Do I know you?" Kohta asked, running the man's face through his memory. There weren't many people he could be. The only people who called him 'little piggy', were the assholes who'd made his life hell back at Fujimi Academy.

"Sure, you do," The other one said. Kohta didn't recognize him at all. He was thinner than the other one and had brown hair as opposed to his colleague's mix of yellow and black. "You nearly shot me with a nail gun back on the school bus."

Kohta made the connection and identified the bigger one.

"Tsunoda?" He said, sizing the man up as memories of locker room beat downs and hallway trippings came flooding back. He still couldn't place the other one. "And you are...?"

"Miura!" He snarled. "Officer Miura to you!"

"Right…" Kohta said, vaguely placing the man as being an associate of Shido. He zipped up his trousers and turned to face the 'gentlemen'. "So, what happened to Shido then? Biters get him?"

"Something like that," Tsunoda grinned. He pulled out a police badge and flashed it at Kohta. "Now, you see Piggy, we have a problem with you. You're carrying a firearm that is illegal in Japan. I'm going to have to ask you to hand it over."

"You should check your memo's Tsunoda," Kohta replied, not in the least humoured. "Our contract with the Japanese government permits Spartan contractors to carry small arms when off duty."

"I'm fairly sure it doesn't," Tsunoda replied with a menacing smile, taking a step forward with Miura moving to back him up. "I'll be taking that now."

Kohta was about to draw his Sig and 'give it to him' when someone else entered the privy.

"Problem Kohta?" Harry asked, standing in the doorway blocking the only exit. Tsunoda and Miura turned around. Kohta looked over Tsunoda's shoulder at Harry.

"No problem mate," Kohta replied. "These coppers, who also bullied me at school, were just asking about a contact sparring session. Isn't that right Tsunoda?"

"Is he now?" Harry replied, his face breaking into a delighted smile. "Well, we better help him out then."

Harry walked over and grabbed Miura around the neck as Kohta grabbed Tsunoda. They struggled, but the contractor duo had the better of them with relative ease.

"I'll fuck you both for this!" Tsunoda yelled.

Kohta and Harry dragged their two victims into the adjacent cubicles and shoved their heads down into the thankfully shit and piss filled buckets that were below.

"What's that mate? Can't seem to hear you!" Kohta said with a fake British accent and a grin. "Can you hear them mate?"

"Nah, I can't mate," Harry replied smiling.

They held them there just long enough to make their unfortunate sparring partners _think_ they were going to drown in shit before briefly letting them come up for air, and dropping their heads back in and dropping the shelf on their heads and departing the cubical, heading back to their table slightly faster than normal.

"You two seem happy," Skye noted as the two young men came back. "Have a good time?"

"Just a bit of fun," Harry said with a cheeky grin, nudging Kohta as they sat down.

"Right…" Tex said, knowing they'd done _something_. "Better call it there, guys. Full day 'a work tomorrow."

"Right you are boss." Dino agreed. They all downed what was left of their drinks and departed just as two furious and shit covered men came storming out of the toilet.

* * *

 **Finally! Some shooting in a zombie story! And it only took 7 Chapters.**

 **Working on Chapter 8. No defined finishing time. Have hit writer's block and have three, count them, three 2,500 word essays coming and I need to get started on them. Do not expect a new chapter anytime soon.**

 **Please favourite/follow/review and constructive criticism is always welcome.**

 **And thank you to my Beta readers for their time. You guys are awesome.**

 **Peace out.**

 **Jango**


	8. Chapter 8

**A/N: This chapter is Rated M due to containing Lemon (That's sex for any noobs.) If this offends you I recommend you skip this Chapter. You have been warned.**

* * *

 _Ronin_

 _Chapter Eight_

Kohta's first month back in Japan had gone by in a flash, after the initial excitement of the Matsuzaki incident, and following the recent arrival of the second wave of contractors, and additional training for good measure.

For now, the world was relatively peaceful. His daily routine of dress, wash, PT, training, guard duty, more PT and more training had finally sunk in. Only interrupted by the occasional briefing, operation planning, and the occasional training session to teach the SDF to do their fucking job.

It was a little after three in the morning when Kohta was woken with a knock at the door.

"Up and at 'em mate!" Dino said as he stuck his head through the door. "You've got thirty minutes to have a shit and a shower and pack your kit. Mission briefing at five. Full recon kit. And bring Krieger."

"Copy that," Kohta said as he rolled out of bed. "This scheduled?"

"Nah mate, just dropped on us from above," Dino said as he departed.

Kohta grabbed a shower, got his kit together and headed down to the canteen for a full breakfast, stacking his plate with as much bacon, fried bread, fried eggs and sausage as he could get away with. It could well be his last good meal for a while. Dino, Mary and Skye were already down and had secured a table, not that there was anyone else eating at this godforsaken hour.

"Rough night Kohta?" Mary asked with a smile as she finished off her cereal.

"Yeah," he sighed before cracking a smile as he sat down. "I couldn't get this hot redhead outta my head." He paused as a slight flush flashed across Mary's face and passed Krieger a sausage under the table before shoving a one into his mouth.

"I think it was your sister," he added with a smirk, causing a laugh from Dino and Skye and Mary to give him a _very_ unladylike gesture.

"Nice to see y'all in fine spirits this mornin'," Tex commented as he walked over and joined them at the table.

"Good morning boss," Dino greeted. "So, what's all this about then? We going on a recon patrol?"

"No, we are not," Tex replied with a sombre tone. He looked seriously at his fireteam. "This is a Black op."

Suddenly the bravado was gone. All the humour, all the light-hearted jokes, vanished. They knew what it meant. They were going in alone, probably doing something highly illegal, and if they got caught they were on their own. There would be no rescue. No cavalry coming over the hill. They would no longer exist. Japan and Spartan PMC would deny all knowledge of their existence, and leave them to either escape on their own, or die.

"What needs doing?" Kohta asked, breaking the uncomfortable silence. Tex looked at him.

"Kohta, Mary. Sniper team." He said. "Bring your long gun, spotting kit, Ghillie suits. Everything. Full stealth and everything you need to kill from up to a klik."

"Roger that," Mary said. Kohta nodded in agreement.

Tex turned to Skye.

"Skye, Medkit. Pack out on tourniquets and painkillers. If we get stuck. We're it."

"Got it."

"Dino. Radio. Sat phone. You know the drill."

"You know it, mate." The Australian confirmed.

"Alright then," Tex nodded, speaking to all of them. "We're gonna finish our breakfast. Have our briefing, pack our kit, then move out. Clear?"

"Clear." They all resounded.

"All right then." Tex picked up his knife and fork. "Bon appetite."

…

They walked together into the small briefing room. There they were met by an unnamed Japanese man in a suit and by Colonel Lail.

They exchanged pleasantries and as they shut the door and took their seats. The unnamed man flicked on a projector, and a picture of a slender, spectacled man with long black hair tied back into a ponytail.

"This is your target," the man said. "Johnathan Penry. He's the leader of a group of survivors hiding out at this location." The screen changed to an aerial recon photo of a school, the ground floor was entirely barricaded. "He is the leader of a community of people, currently hiding out in the main building of Yamato International School. He was a teacher there when the outbreak came, and when it hit managed to secure the main building and keep 50 or so students alive and has since spent the last few years training them, being a former US Army Ranger himself.

"An SDF unit was sent to assist just after the outbreak but we lost contact. When we first found this group 3 months ago and offered them re-integration, they fired on our envoy and stated that if we ever returned they would kill all of us. Due to the fact that his group is entirely made up of adolescents and there are numerous infants on sight, we haven't returned. But we believe that if Penry was removed, the others might see reason.

"Your mission is simple. We need Penry dead."

"So why haven't you killed him?" Mary asked bluntly. "Any half-decent sniper could wait and shoot him. You don't need our expertise to do _that_."

"It's not our skills they need Mary," Tex answered. "They need us to do it so that if anyone asks, they can honestly deny that they did it."

"He's right," Lail said. "The Japanese government needs to maintain plausible deniability. If you fail and get caught, you're just a bunch of people with guns. If the SDF got caught, well that's a whole different kettle of fish."

"Correct," the Japanese man said. He flashed up another slide, a map view of the area surrounding the school, it was heavily forested with a number of hills surrounding it. "We will give you a civilian car to insert and extract with. We shall leave the rest to you to decide how to proceed. There will be no radio contact during the operation. Is that understood?"

The contractors nodded.

"Over to you Tex," Lail announced. Tex nodded and stood up.

"You know your jobs. You know the dance," he said. "Draw kit and Rations for four days, maybe five. We can stash in the car if need be. RV to leave at 12:30. Get it done."

The fireteam stood and filed out. Tex shook the Colonel's hand and left a moment later.

"What do you think Tex?" Dino asked.

"You don't wanna know," Tex replied, he glanced at Kohta. "You gonna be ok buddy? This goes south you could be shooting Jap kids."

Kohat shrugged, "Fuck'em boss. Just another target."

Skye sighed, "And he used to be such a gentleman…"

"I blame Dino," Mary added. "He's a bad influence."

…

The fireteam pulled over about 5km from the target in a small clearing just off from a country road. The 'civilian vehicle' the Japanese government had been a tiny Suzuki barely capable of carrying four partying teenagers, let alone five fully kitted combat operators and their dog, so instead they'd taken one of Spartan PMC's plain dark green Ford F-150 pickup trucks. They parked next to a large hedge and killed the engine. Tex jumped out and ran around to the back to swap the number plate.

"What's he doing that for?" Mary asked.

"In case we were spotted on the way out," Dino replied. "Gives another layer of anonymity. Then when we pack out, we swap back."

"Good thinking," Kohta replied, making a mental note to remember that for future ops.

Dino and Skye took out a large camouflage net from the back of the truck and draped it over the car, finishing with throwing any loose leaves and branches on top to complete the camouflage. Tex checked the map as Kohta and Mary unpacked their sniper gear. It was a little after 7:00 pm local time, the sun would be going down around 9:00 pm. Generally speaking, being out past dark was a death sentence for most people; sound carried further and the undead, with their grey mottled skin, blended in better in the dark. But for a team of experienced contractors in full assault kit, it would be a minor inconvenience at best.

"Ok, we'll grab a quick bite and then we'll head off to the FOP here, then the sniper team will move forward after dark and wait till the target shows himself," Tex said, gesturing to the map he had over the hood of the truck. "Call in when you have the target, drop him, then we get out quick and quiet."

"Fall-back plan if we get spotted?" Kohta asked.

"Scatter yourselves and get back here by your own means," Tex said. "Failing that; make your own way back to Tokyo."

The team reviewed one or two more minor points before heating up some MREs and gathering for an early dinner. The banter and jives that usually accompanied dinner were conspicuously absent, although it was more to do with noise discipline than actual lack of willingness to banter. They were, after all, still in zombie country, a fact reinforced by the occasional zed that wandered into their camp, only to be dispatched by a suppressed pistol shot without the shooter bothering to getting up.

With their MRE dinner finished and the sun beginning its final descent to the horizon, they moved out in a single line into the dense forest. With roughly five kilometres of rough terrain to cover, they had a hard time finding the best route to the target. They were sticking off-road, avoiding the hiking trails that crisscrossed the foothills around Tokyo. Their target maybe hostile, but was not an idiot. There may be traps or watchmen covering the trails. It made for tougher going, but with their NVGs, and full combat equipment, it was nothing they couldn't handle.

They reached their FOP at around 9:00 PM, just as the last light was beginning to fade.

Kohta and Mary set down their equipment and started stripping their kit down while everyone else formed a perimeter. They were the sniper team and would be the ones going forwards to make the kill. They didn't need full fighting gear for the shot and would be coming back this way to RV with the team unless things went tits up. They shed their body armour and went down to their webbing belts and donned Ghillie suit jackets with hoods over their combat shirts before applying camouflage cream to their faces. Mary then went to check her spotting gear while Kohta prepared the rifle.

It was an Accuracy International Arctic Warfare Super Magnum. The large sniper rifle featured OD green folding polymer furniture, a 5-25 X magnification scope, bipod, a large suppressor, and was chambered for .338 Lapua Magnum. It was more than adequate, bordering on overkill, for the task.

Kohta wrapped the rifle carefully in a dark green scrim scarf, which helped to break up the outlines of the rifle and its scope as well as reducing the risk of detection from light reflection off the scope lenses. It would be him taking the shot. Mary was arguably a better shot than him, but it was a tradition among sniper teams that the less experienced shooter took the shot.

"All set?" Tex asked quietly. Kohta and Mary exchanged a glance and nodded. "Alright, see you later. Good luck."

Without a word the two snipers set off, disappearing into the forestry with barely a sound.

They moved slowly and carefully, taking slow deliberate steps and pausing every few meters, rustling the undergrowth under their feet, and then moving again. It was the way animals moved. They weren't silent, they did make some noise and unless panicked or startled, they didn't move quickly. The two were so well versed in their craft, that not even the birds made their alarm calls when they approached.

That was good. It meant that if they did do an alarm call, something else was with them.

Generally, infected weren't much of a problem off road in the mountains. They usually followed the path of least resistance unless there was food or noise to chase. That didn't mean they weren't unheard of, and with their darkened, dead skin, they were better camouflaged than people would expect.

They were also far less active at night than during the day. Even though sound travelled further and it was easier to attract the undead during the night, they tended to become more sluggish, less energetic. They'd even seen zombies just standing still, usually in remote areas or in a sealed room where they'd had no sensory input and entered a sort of hibernation to conserve energy.

Mary was on point, picking out their path while Kohta was watching their rear and surroundings. He didn't focus directly on his surroundings, but instead on the middle distance, watching for movement and signs of change.

They were creating a trail. It was faint, almost invisible to the untrained eye. But it was there, and clearly human, not infected. There were a few bent blades of grass, and the trail was in a roughly straight line, clearly people in single file, not an ambling infected. You wouldn't see it unless you had special ops or tracking experience, but it would give them a path to follow back to camp if they needed to extract quick.

They found a firing point that would serve further down the hill. It was a large moss and grass-covered rocky outcrop that jutted out of the hill. It was wide enough that they could lay down comfortably side by side with all their kit, had an excellent view of the school in the valley below, and the overhanging trees came down low enough to give them cover from sight while also giving them a clean shot.

The two went to work and set up their kit. Kohta laid down a camo matt so dust wouldn't interfere with his sights Next he lay the rifle down on its bipod before arranging a small cleaning kit, a notepad, rangefinder and other essential bits of sniper kit around before going prone behind his rifle. Mary did much the same as she set up her spotting scope along with some other odds and ends.

Kohta removed the magazine from his rifle, checked the top round was seated correctly and reinserted it into the mag well before cycling the bolt.

"Shooter up," he whispered as he peered through the scope.

"Spotter up," Mary replied as she turned on her spotting sight with a slight whine of microprocessors spooling up. "And now we wait."

It would be a long time until dawn, so they had plenty of time to get ready. They spent some time range finding, getting their sights set for range, and going over the school buildings for any points where they might see their target.

"Jesus," Mary chuckled quietly as she looked through her night vision binoculars. "Check it out. Third floor, fourth window from the right."

Kohta panned the rifle over to the window Mary had indicated. He could see something, but it wasn't clear, he upped his scope's magnification and adjusted the focus until it became clearer…

"Ah," was all Kohta was able to say. The room indicated was a classroom. And in the aforementioned classroom were a boy and a girl. And this young lady and gentlemen were… _busy…_

"Well glad to see the end of the world is working out for someone…" Kohta was finally able to say as he shifted his sights back to look for something more productive.

"Like it hasn't worked out for you?" Mary snarked, glancing sidewise at Kohta before going back to watching the couple. "You're a Special Forces trained scout sniper getting paid to hunt the world's lands and seas for zombies and the enemies of humanity. _Because_ of the apocalypse! How has that 'not worked out' for you?"

"I'm the one lying out in the cold with a sniper rifle and he's the one getting laid," Kohta replied with a smile, glancing back at the couple through his scope. "Though I am spending the night with the prettier woman."

Mary chuckled slightly, happy that her camouflage paint was hiding her blush.

"So why haven't you had sex yet Kohta?" Mary asked bluntly. "You're not gay, are you? Not that there's anything wrong with that if you are…"

Kohta chuckled, "No, not gay. Just waiting for the right woman."

"You know if you asked Skye she'd probably say yes."

"I know."

"So why haven't you?"

"I want my first time to be special." Kohta shrugged. "And let's face it; I'm not the best catch in the world."

"Don't sell yourself short Kohta," Mary advised. "Girls don't look for a dumb footballer these days. Now they look for a nice guy who can handle himself when the shit hits the fan. You could fill all three of those categories."

There was a moment of silence between them before Mary sighed.

"Look, if it's alright with you I'm gonna crash. Wake me in three hours of if something happens," she said.

"Copy that," Kohta replied. "Sleep tight."

…

" _Kohta… Kohta…"_

 _Something was out there, calling his name._

" _Kohta… Kohta…"_

 _He looked around the forest, but couldn't see anything between the black_ _trees_ _that leeched red sap like blood._

" _Kohta!" The voice said again, much louder this time. Kohta spun and a shroud stood before him. The roiling black smoke shifted and churned as it first turned white, then formed into a figure, and then a person._

" _Shizuka-Sensei?"_ _he_ _said, greeting her with both a smile and suspicion. She smiled and continued towards him, looking him up and down as naked as the day she was born._

" _Kohta-san," She said lovingly, pulling him into a tight loving embrace. "I missed you."_

" _I…" Kohta stammered, he was about to go into his 'I had to leave' rhetoric but just couldn't do it this time. "I… I missed you too Shizuka-Sensei."_

" _Hmmm," She purred, running a hand up and down his spine. Kohta's his face heated as she pulled his face into her cleavage and shivered at her touch on his bare skin. She shuddered as he breathed into her chest. A lustful moan escaped her mouth and Kohta felt his manhood tighten._

 _She loosened her hold on him and he backed away from her chest. Her golden butter eyes melted into his. He could feel her breath on his face. Their lips were paused just an inch away… before she pressed hers onto his with a wet, lustful moan._

 _She forced her tongue past his lips and started to explore inside while her arms explored his combat toned body. Kohta, realising he'd been caught off guard, fought back; his tongue meeting hers and duelling inside their mouths while his arms explored her curvaceous body. One of his hands found its way to her firm, round behind, while the other took a handful of one of her large breasts and squeezed._

 _"Ohh Kohta!" She moaned happily, breaking the kiss and pulling away from him. She looked him in the eye again with renewed lust and slowly pushed against him, pushing him down to the forest floor and lying on top of him among the leaves. One hand took hold of his manhood, Kohta yelped at her firm grip as her hand rubbed along his shaft and pressed it against her moist, wet womanhood. Before He could say anything, she dropped on him. Kohta groaned and Shizuka moaned as her wet tightness enveloped him._

 _"Miss Shizuka…"_ _he_ _breathed. She chuckled slightly before taking his lips again and began bouncing up and down on him. After the euphoric surprise began to fade, Kohta's instincts took over. He grabbed her waist started to move his hips in sync with hers._

" _Oh Kohta," She breathed. She repositioned and straddled him, placing her hands on his chest to steady herself as she began to bounce on him faster and faster. Her breathing became ragged, deeper and her voice became louder and louder._

 _"Kohta. Kohta! Kohta! KOHTA!"_

…

"Kohta! Kohta wake up!" Mary hissed into his ear.

Kohta's eyes flashed open with a start. He looked around, looking for Shizuka, but she was gone, and he was not naked.

"Man you're a heavy sleeper," Mary murmured. "Get on the gun, we've got movement."

Kohta shook off the last vestiges of grogginess from his rapid awakening and shoved the memory of his wet dream aside for later dwelling as he rolled over back onto his front and settled in behind his rifle, once again setting the stock into his shoulder and setting his eye to the scope.

Morning had come while he'd been asleep. An orange sky was forming over the tree and treetops on the far side of the valley. The sun wasn't high enough to interfere with Kohta's sights or make it hard for Mary to spot for him, but it wouldn't stay like that for long.

"What have we got?" Kohta asked as he flicked the sight covers off his scope.

"Target plus adolescent male on the roof of target building," Mary reported, eyes glued to her spotting scope. "Seem to be having an argument."

"Confirm that it is the target?" Kohta replied, focusing on the roof and the older of the two males.

"Confirm. It's him. Calling it in."

"Roger."

Kohta focused on setting up his sights and making calculations for the shot while Mary contacted Tex and the others back at the fall-back point. He took his range finder and lased the range to target: 775 meters. His sniper rifle was rated for headshot accuracy at 400 meters and had a first shot hit range of over 1,200 meters. The .338 Lapua Magnum round it was chambered for was highly accurate and lethal at even the most extreme ranges. The rifle was up to the task, and Kohta had made harder shots.

"…Roger. Out," Mary finished speaking into the radio and turned to Kohta. "They're packing up on the hill. We're cleared to fire."

"Copy that," Kohta replied. He took a deep breath and began to methodically control his breathing and slow his heart rate. "Final read?"

"Target hasn't moved," Mary replied, peering through her spotting scope. "Range to Target; seven hundred and seventy-five meters. Angle of elevation minus six, negligible wind, no correction needed."

Kohta nodded, he'd drawn the same conclusions but Mary was the more experienced sniper, hearing it from her was reassuring.

The target was still arguing with the teenager on the roof, from the look of it it was fairly heated. This was their chance, it could be over any minute and then the target would head back inside and they'd have to wait for another day. Another day with the chance of discovery. Another day where the infected could find them. Another day they could catch some sickness that could potentially kill them. This was their chance, and his time to die.

"Firing…" Kohta breathed out, emptying his lungs. The sights on his rifle stabilized, hovering over the man's chest. All Kohta could hear was his heartbeat as he slowly applied pressure to the trigger.

 _Ba-bum… breathe out… Ba-bum… breathe in… ba-bum… breathe out… click!_

The rifle jumped back into Kohta's shoulder with a muffled _crack_ as the round left the suppressor shrouded muzzle. For a moment nothing happened. The .338 Lapua Magnum round had a muzzle velocity of 936 meters per second, it would take just over a second for the round to reach its target. Kohta and Mary watched. The target jerked, placed a hand over his heart, and crumpled.

The boy twisted around, frantically looking for the shooter. Rather than move Kohta and Mary stayed, at this range their camouflage would conceal them, but drastic movement could have given them away. Instead, Kohta only moved enough to slowly remove the spent casing from the chamber and jack a fresh round into the chamber, ready to drop the boy if they were detected.

After a few moments of frantic searching, the boy ran inside, no doubt shouting for help. By the time he and other armed and confused residents of the school returned to the roof, Kohta and Mary were gone. Vanished into the forest with scarcely a trail to betray their having been there.

…

Saya Takagi glared at the stack of papers that littered her desk, and let out a sigh and slumped back in her chair in frustration. She looked over at the large map of Japan that was pinned to the wall of her office, upon which the location and name of every known survivor settlement, government-aligned or otherwise, was pinned. Every one of those aligned settlements contributed something to the greater whole of the nation, and everyone had specific needs and supply demands, and it was her and her staff of _four_ 's job to coordinate the delivery of supplies between the settlements and to see that their tithes were delivered in full, on time.

Saya checker her watch. She reluctantly turned off her lamp and shrugged on her business suit jacket as she left the office.

Thirty minutes later Saya arrived at _The Jasmine Dragon,_ full of people enjoining an evening drink and chat. She spotted Saeko, Rei and Shizuka at their usual table in the corner, chatting away while nursing various alcoholic drinks. She walked over and groaned apologetically as she dropped into her seat. "Sorry I'm late. The Niko settlement sent a request for a new generator, but are still refusing an SDF presence."

"Here, this should help," Rei said as she slid Saya's usual drink order, a large Cherry Sourz with coke. Saya accepted the drink with a thankful sigh and proceeded to take a large, prolonged sip of it before removing her jacket.

"So how was anyone else's day?" Saya asked.

"Quiet," Saeko said, "No one tried to assassinate your father today." Saeko granted herself a small smile at her own humour before taking a sip of her drink. "Rei?"

"Just another day at school," Rei shrugged, then smiled. "Although I think Mr. Tani maybe about to ask me out."

"About time!" Saya declared with an amused snort. "You said he's been watching you for ages! Took him long enough to finally get off his ass and ask you."

"I think it's kind of sweet. The way he's nervous about asking you out," Shizuka chuckled. "Besides, Mr. Tani is cute…"

Rei leaned over and swatted the buxom blond on the forehead. "Ow! What was that for?!"

"Eye's off! He's mine!" Rei shouted half seriously, half playfully. Saya facepalmed at her friend's actions while Saeko snickered behind her hand.

On one level, Saya was happy for them. But, on another level, Saya was deeply jealous of her friends. Saeko had Takashi, Shizuka had Rika, and now even Rei had someone. Saya didn't. A few people had tried to date her, but they'd either been political climbers trying to get closer to her father, or just stupid people she couldn't stand.

The only person she'd ever liked that way was Hirano. And he'd left her.

Idly she wondered where he was, what he was doing, and if he'd ever forgiven her for chasing him away.

…

Across the bar, Kohta watched his old friends at the table. They were laughing. Shizuka had said something and Rei had bopped her on the head and told her that someone was off limits. He was glad to see they were happy. He would normally go over and say 'Hi', but _she_ was there.

Saya was more beautiful than he remembered. She'd kept her hair the same in pigtails, although they were slightly shorter than he remembered. She'd grown a bit too and her body had taken on a shapelier appearance.

Kohta weighed up the risks of saying hello, but then he remembered the pain. The pain she'd caused him when she stabbed him in the back and chased him away for wanting to make a man of himself and be of service to others.

He dismissed the memories of 'the good times' that started to rear their heads before finishing his drink and departing the bar without her noticing.

* * *

 **Slightly shorter chapter than normal due to essays, but still wanted to keep the story rolling.**

 **Also first attempt at a lemon, so there was that. Oh, and Saya's back!**

 **Next chapter is basically one big battle, shit starts blowing up!**

 **As ever, please review/favorite/follow, all constructive criticism is welcome.**

 **Jango**


	9. Chapter 9

_Ronin_

 _Chapter Nine_

Tex unclipped himself from the narrow canvas seat in the Thunderbird's troop bay, grabbing one of the overhead handles to steady himself against the small hurricane that blew through the open side door. Oswald, partially blocking the door as he sat with his hands on his minigun's grips, looked up and offered Tex a polite nod, his face hidden behind his black mirrored helmet visor.

The gunship was racing barely a hundred feet above the ground, the first chopper in an aerial convoy consisting of every helo and gunship Spartan and the JSDF could scramble. The contractors and few JSDF soldiers embarked hadn't been told anything about where they were going, just to get boarded as quickly as they could in full combat kit with as much ammo as they could carry.

The Thunderbird swerved to go around an office block that hugged the side of a motorway before the pilot readjusted the helo back to level flight. As he looked out the door, Tex couldn't help but notice the fully loaded rocket pods and Hellfire missile racks that hung from the gunship's wings and wondered what kind of fight they were in for. His helmet's integrated headset crackled into life and he was given a quick briefing by Colonel Lail back at base. Suddenly all the firepower made sense.

"Listen up! Listen in! Be briefed! Or be sorry!" he shouted, struggling to make himself heard by the rest of the squad over the gunship's engine noise, despite their throat mics and headset. The other members of Fireteam Spectre turned to face him and turned their ears to the helmet comms.

"At 07:38 Hours this morning, a mega-herd breached the defences of the Tateraoi settlement! The surviving population have barricaded themselves inside the school and the hospital buildings. A few gutsy natives managed to drive a van and temporarily seal the breach, but there is still a large number of infected inside the perimeter and they could re-open the breech anytime! We will be dropping in to clear the infected inside and hold back the herd outside when they breach the defences again to buy time for the helos evacuate people off the roof of the buildings. We will be dropping in on the main highway and will fall back to the school while fireteams Trident and Centaur take the hospital! An SDF platoon is being dropped on the roofs and will oversee the evacuation effort. Air support will be available but limited to outside the walls until the evac is complete. Any questions?"

"Boss!" Dino asked. "Any idea what caused the breach?"

"None known at this time!" Tex replied. "Let's just focus on getting the civilians out!"

" _One minute to drop!"_ Harry announced over the intercom as the Thunderbird crested over a hill. The contractors heard the rapid booms as the chin mounted chain gun opened up and saw Oswald fire an air ripping burst from the minigun at the settlement below as the heard came into view.

" _SPARTANS!"_ A voice shouted over all their throat mic, overriding the radio channels so he could be heard by everyone. _"WHAT IS YOUR PROFESSION?!"_

A smile cracked across the face of every contractor as they screamed back their reply. _"HA-OOH! HA-OOH! HA-OOH!"_

" _30 seconds!"_

"Stand up!" Tex shouted, motioning for the team to rise. Kohta unlatched his crash harness and racked his SCAR's charging handle as he stood before checking his mags were secure and Krieger was securely clipped into his drop harness. He had eleven SCAR magazines on him including the one he had loaded. Krieger was carrying twelve more on his vest. He was going to need all of them.

Harry bought the massive gunship to a hover, autocannon still booming at some unseen target, while Oswald rigged up a fast rope for the contractors to drop down. Mary stepped up first and grabbed onto the rope, glancing quickly at Kohta before looking to Tex.

"Green light!" Tex shouted a moment later. "Go!Go!GO!"

Mary stepped off the chopper and vanished as she slid down the rope. Dino stepped up next and dropped after her. Kohta shuffled forward inside the cramped helo and stood in the door. He seized the rope with his gloved hands and threw himself forward, loosening his grip slightly causing him to slide down towards the ground. He'd scarcely been falling for two seconds before his boots hit the tarmac with a _thud_. He let go of the rope and stepped forward, into his spot in the all-around defence beneath the helicopter, releasing Krieger's harness mid-stride and bringing his SCAR into his shoulder to sight his target.

There, infected all around them. He targeted the closest one in his sector and fired, the 7.62mm round tore a chunk out of the zombie's shoulder and sent it toppling backwards as Kohta switched targets and tapped two rounds into a second target.

None of their weapons were suppressed. There was no point; between the dozen or so helicopters orbiting or hovering overhead, their cannons, miniguns, the fire being laid down by the contractors already on the ground and the noise of the undead themselves, there was no point. They were not being subtle. This was hard and loud open season, and they loved it!

Tex was the last one out of the chopper and hit the ground running. His voice crackled over their headsets as he shouted _"Clear!"_ back up to Harry in the pilot's seat. The Thunderbird's engine pitch increased as Harry increased power and the heavy gunship pulled up and away, its chin-mounted cannon still ripping away at the infected below.

If they were dropping into assault an inhabited settlement, they would have hauled ass from the landing zone and gotten into cover as the helo was moving off, but with zombies it was different. The only bullets being fired were their own or the ones of the local defence forces coming from the rooftops, which seemed to be only gracing to occasion out of a sense of duty. Instead, as they cleared the area around the drop zone, they formed lines like on a shooting range and laid into the infected. There was no panicked full auto fire, just rapid, steady single shots as the contractors dropped their targets one by one.

"DZ clear! Get inside!" Tex ordered. They hadn't killed every infected inside the walls, just the ones in immediate proximity to where they'd landed and around the buildings they needed to hold. There was no point killing all of them, they had the ammo but the seal in the breach wouldn't hold much longer and they'd be caught outside against a tidal wave of zombies. As ordered the contractor's broke ranks and moved to their assigned buildings in good order, keeping their weapons ready and dropping any zombies that got to close.

The people inside the buildings saw them coming and started taking down parts of the barricades to let them in, dismantling the tables, chairs and cupboards they'd hurriedly thrown against the doors to keep the undead out to let in the men and women whose murderous profession would save their lives. Tex stopped short of the doors, counting all of the contractors in before turning to head in himself and taking in the situation.

There were a few dozen people in the entrance. Mainly young men and women of fighting age armed with whatever tools they could get their hands on. Most looked scared. Some had blood on them, apparently having put up a fight.

"Who's in charge here?" He shouted. People were scrambling to seal the doors and reassemble the barricades while the contractors stood guard and reloaded their weapons for the coming fight.

"I am." A man said, he was a big, middle-aged man with black wiry hair and a fuzzy beard, he had a revolver in one hand and a white shield with the Japanese flag sewn onto his jacket's breast; the mark of a prefect, a rough modern equivalent to an old western sheriff.

"How many civilians have we got in here?" Tex asked him, he needed to relay it to the helos to get them out of here.

"Eighty-four," the prefect replied. "We've got most of them all upstairs. No idea how many made it to the hospital, but all my deputies are dead or missing. As far as holding them back, you're it."

"Alright," Tex said. "Get everyone up to the roof. Helicopters will lift you off from there. We'll get to work down here."

"Get to work sir?" The prefect asked. "What work will you be doing?"

Tex looked at the man and cracked a slight smile. "We're going to buy you the time you need to evacuate. To do that, we're going to kill every last zombie that comes through that door."

…

Harry rolled the Thunderbird's wings level, placed the crosshairs over the centre of the horde, and fired. Streams of orange vapour shot past the cockpit as he emptied what was left in his hydra rocket pods into the mass of zombies. He pulled out of his attack run and climbed away, turning his head to see the damage he'd caused. There were many dead zombies on the ground, hundreds even. But rocket strikes were like stomping on a swarm of ants: you'd kill most of the ones under your boot. But the swarm would just crawl over their dead and keep going.

The same was happening here. The ground was _black_ with zombies and they just kept coming! This was a full-on chain swarm and the only thing holding them back was the constant shredding the various helos were giving them.

But that was about to end. One by one the Knighthawks had been called back to pick people off the roof, and with each one, a pair of twin M134 miniguns was removed from the fight. Even the Thunderbirds, as heavily armed as they were, were running dry. Harry had emptied the last of the ammo for his chin mounted cannon sweeping climbers off the walls and buying time for the disembarking ground forces. He'd used his Hellfires taking out most of a hillside's worth of zombies in his initial attack runs and he'd just emptied the last of his rocket pods. Even Oswald's door-mounted minigun was running dry from clearing off stragglers.

He and the other gunships had no choice. They had to head back to rearm. But as soon as they were gone, there would be nothing holding back the tide of undead that would come crashing down on those walls and nothing to stop them breaking through.

Reluctantly, Harry pressed his comm stud.

"All callsigns, Thunderbird 2. Rounds complete. Returning to base to rearm. Over."

" _Thunderbird 2. Spectre. Solid copy. Get back here as quick as you can. Out."_

…

" _All callsigns, Thunderbird 2. Rounds complete. Returning to base to rearm. Over."_

" _Thunderbird 2. Spectre. Solid copy. Get back here as quick as you can. Out."_

Kohta cursed mentally as he heard Harry make his RTB call. That meant the close air support they'd been relying on to hold back the herd was leaving, and they didn't have the firepower or ammo on the ground to take over from them. It was times like this that Kohta wished they had an M1 Abrams or something similar loaded with M1028 Canister rounds, which was designed _specifically_ for close-in defence of tanks against massed assaulting infantry by discharging large numbers of tungsten balls from the main cannon; the mother of all zombie killing weapons.

But they didn't. All they had were their small arms, the ammo they carried, and the staggered fall-back positions they'd hastily assembled throughout the building for them to fall back to and delay the zombies not if, but _when_ they got in.

It would have to do.

As if sensing his master's frustration, Krieger padded over to him and gave his leg and affectionate nuzzle. Kohta smiled and scratch Krieger behind the ears.

"We'll be ok boy." He said. "We'll be ok."

"Alright stand to!" Tex shouted as he came down into the school's atrium. They'd barricaded the door and the base of the stairs where they were. From there they could lay down fire into the undead as they struggled to cross the barricade, and when they breached it they could fall back to the next one and repeat the process until they ran out of barricades, by which point the helos would be back and the last of the evacuees would have been extracted. Hopefully.

"Boss we've got a problem!" Skye announced as she came running down the stairs. "We've got all the evacuees up on the roof. Only another thirty left to go. But there's a woman in labour."

"What?" Tex asked repeated disbelievingly.

"30-year-old pregnant woman in the nurse's office on the third floor. Went into labour when the walls were breached." Skye answered. "Midwives are with her now but it's a breach birth. She can't be moved."

"Fuck." Tex cursed. It was a complication they didn't need. "Is there any way they can speed it up?"

"It's a baby Tex," Skye replied, with a frown. "It'll come when it's ready."

"Just tell them to do what they can." Tex groaned. "We'll hold them back as long as we can."

Skye nodded and hurried back up the stairs. Kohta shrugged.

"Bad time to be having a baby." He muttered.

"Tell me about it." Mary agreed. "When I have kids, I want to be off my tits on an epidural."

"Planning on having kids?" Kohta queried, glancing over at her from watching the doors. She shrugged.

"Someday," she said. "If I find the right man."

"If you two are done planning your future together might I suggest you finish checking your weapons and arcs?" Dino interrupted as he lugged another desk into place to add to the barricade.

They laughed but relented and started over their weapons again, but they only got part way through before there was a thunderous crash from outside, and a soul splitting howl just after.

" _Wall breach! Wall Breach!"_ Someone shouted over the radio. _"Southside! Shit! There's thousands of' em!"_

"Skye get down here!" Tex ordered into his radio as he stepped up to take his position the firing line. "Fireteam Spectre! Stand to and hold fire! Wait till they start climbing the barricade. Slow deliberate shots only, no full auto until I say so! Let's give 'em hell!"

Kohta suddenly pulled his SCAR tighter into his shoulder and gripped it so tight that his knuckles turned white before he took a breath and forced himself to relax slightly. This wasn't his first time standing in front of a chain swarm. He could not freak out, he could not Rambo this. He didn't have enough ammo to even scratch the number of infected coming for him. The only way he and his friends were getting out of this alive was by working together. They'd drilled this a hundred times and done it for real too. They'd got this.

At first, there was nothing. The school's front doors were facing to the east, so the herd was coming perpendicular to the way they were aiming. They could only wait.

A full minute passed before the first zombies came into view, during which Skye re-joined them at the barricade. They came in a black tide. At first, they just walked past, and seemed as if they would just continue to until one undead, a mostly decomposed skeletal male, turned and looked up, maybe it had heard something from one of the waiting evacuees on the roof, and then started towards the school, knocking into glass doors of the school. The noise of impact attracted others, and within a few seconds, it seemed the entire herd was hammering on the glass, trying to force their way in.

"Hold," Tex ordered, just loud enough for them to hear. If they fired now they'd only shoot out the glass and lose their first line of defence. It wouldn't last long but it would buy them some time till the helicopters came back.

Kohta saw the cracks begin to form in the glass…

"Hold."

Another crack…

"Hold."

Finally, the glass shattered.

"Open fire!"

Kohta put his red dot scope on the nearest zombie and fired, dropping the first zombie through the door as the rest of the team opened up on their own targets. Some of the first few rows of corpses dropped, as did some in the row behind, but the rest just continued forwards, stepping over their fallen kind.

"Remind me again why we couldn't bring the Saigas!" Kohta shouted as he dropped a spent magazine and pulled a fresh one from his vest. "Some drum mags would be useful about now!"

"Too much collateral damage!" Dino shouted back as he ran his M249 back and forth along the line of encroaching corpses in long controlled bursts. "Apparently they're going to want this place back someday!"

"Oh! So, we can call in airstrikes but not use a bloody shotgun!" Mary shouted in mild disgust. "That makes _total_ sense!"

"Oh, just shut up and kill these things!" Tex cut in over the gunfire, which itself was, mercifully, drowning out the sounds of the infected. They were killing hundreds of them, but they just kept coming, climbing over their dead so they were now approaching the first barricade and threatened to overrun it.

"Prepare to fall back!" Tex shouted. "Ready grenades!"

"Oh" So we can use 'nades but not…" Kohta started as he flicked his safety on and pulled a frag from its pouch.

"Shut it Kohta! Ready? Over the top on three! One… Two… Three!"

Five grenades sailed over the barricade and exploded among the horde, sending shrapnel scything through the legs and bodies of any infected. Many dropped, becoming crawlers instead of walkers. They would find it hard to get over the barricade at the foot of the stairs when they couldn't stand, and it would buy rest of the defenders more time. After retreating upstairs, the team reorganized on the 3rd floor.

"How we doing on ammo?" Tex asked. Skye and Dino were keeping watch on the stairs while Kohta and Mary were rebombing their magazines from their daysacks and replacing some of their spent mags with fresh ones from Krieger's vest.

"Could be better," Mary replied as she hurriedly slotted 7.62 NATO into a spare magazine. "Kohta and I burned through most of what we were carrying, and Krieger can only carry so much."

"We've got enough in the SCARs for a last stand," Kohta added. "But after that, its sidearms and hand to hand." The last part of that point was a fact that they were all painfully well aware of and also knew exactly how likely it was for someone to be overwhelmed and killed.

"Alright, finish up and go relieve Skye and Dino," Tex ordered. "I'll get on the radio and see if I can get a hurry on those evac birds."

Tex headed off to make the radio call while Kohta and Mary kept loading magazines.

"Think we'll get out of this in one piece?" Mary asked honestly.

"We've gotten out of worse," Kohta shrugged. "Remember Liverpool?"

"Vividly," Mary replied. "But even so…" She reached over and pulled Kohta into a passionate kiss. He kissed her back. It was beautiful, blissful oblivion from the fighting that surrounded them.

"Oh, will you two save it for later and just fuck already!" Skye shouted as she moved back to the ammo point. Mary and Kohta practically jumped apart as Skye knelt down next to Krieger and started removing empty magazines. "Go watch the stairs! Dino and I need to reload!"

"Right…" Kohta murmured, his and Mary's face were a shade of scarlet normally associated with cherry candy as they collected up their mags, gave Krieger a scratch behind the neck as a thank you and hurried back to the stairs to relieve Dino at the stairs.

…

Tex jogged to the nurse's office to get an update, it was only about thirty meters straight down the corridor from where the rest of the team were rebombing their magazines. As he stepped into the nurse's room, he was greeted by an ear-splitting scream of pain that even made the seasoned contractor flinch. Gathered around one of the beds were a huddle of nuns in full habits with white aprons over them tending to a woman in her mid-thirties who looked to be in incredible pain and also exhausted, sweat streaming down her skin.

"Who's in charge here?" Tex asked. The nuns looked up from the labouring mother for a moment and one of them excused herself and walked over to him.

"I am," she said in near perfect English. "Sister Saito."

"Sister, how's she doing?" Tex asked, nodding over towards the birthing mother, wincing as she let out another laboured scream. The sister simply waited for her to stop before replying.

"Not good." She said. "As I told the girl from earlier, the baby is breech, and this is proving to be a difficult labour for her. But we are progressing."

"Any idea how long until we can move her?"

"Not until the baby is born, which will be soon."

"Anyway we can hurry it up?" Tex asked. "Anything we can give her?"

The sister shook her head. "She can only have certain drugs due to a medical condition. And even if we could give her anything we haven't got any to give her. How is it out there?"

"Not good." Tex replied "We're low on ammo and they're swarming over our barricades." He politely held up his hand. "Excuse me a moment."

Tex tuned his radio to a different channel and pressed the speak button on the mic on his rig.

"Control this is Spectre One." He spoke into the radio. "ETA on those evac choppers? Over?"

" _Spectre one, Control. Evac choppers are about eight minutes out."_ A voice replied over the radio a few moments later.

"Copy that control," Tex replied. "Be advised, we have times five Spectres, one dog, four nuns, a woman in labour still in the hospital and are critically low on ammo. Request someone hurry up those helos and get these people out of here. Over."

" _Copy that Spectre One. Scrambling Thunderbird's One and Two, ETA ten minutes. Knighthawks 5 and 7 are being rerouted to extract remaining survivors now. Good luck Spectre. Control out."_

Tex hung up the radio and returned his attention to the waiting sister. He just opened his mouth to speak when the report of gunfire started to echo down the hallway.

"TEX! THEY'RE COMING UP THE STAIRS!" Dino shouted through the gunfire. Tex swapped his half spent mag for a full one and turned to the nun.

"Get that baby out and get to the roof. We'll buy you the time you need." He said before he turned and sprinted out the door to re-join his team.

He found Kohta and Mary had descended to the 2nd-floor landing where they firing rapid, aimed shots into the undead as they came at them, blanketing the stairs in corpses. Dino and Skye were just behind them, rapidly reloading magazines and passing them to Kohta and Mary while also scooping up the spent ones as they dropped. Tex moved down to join them, adding to the volume of fire going down the stairs against them. The undead were howling as they fought to scramble over there fallen and wounded kin to climb the stairs. It was like a hundred dead pairs of eyes were locked onto the contractors like a pack of wolves on a wounded antelope, and it sent a brief shiver up their spines.

Kohta had his eye down his CQB red dot sight, passing the dot over the foreheads of infected and squeezing the trigger as they traced over a target. He'd just dropped an infected, a former schoolgirl judging by the tattered remnants of its clothes when the bolt locked back on his SCAR. Automatically, he released the magazine and shoved it into his rig's dump pouch before, and without looking up from his sight, he felt around his rig for a fresh one. He paused, had another feel, and then glanced down at his pouches.

They were all empty.

"SCAR Empty!" Kohta shouted as he thumbed the battle rifle's bolt release and dropped the rifle, letting its sling catch it and swing out of the way while he ripped his MK25 from its cross pull holster on his chest and double tapped the closest infected, scarcely ten feet away, between the eyes before moving on to other targets.

They were getting far too close for comfort now, they were close enough that a decent lunge on some good traction would send a zombie straight into the contractors. Kohta saw it happen a moment before it was too late. Mary was tunnel visioning down her scope and hadn't even realized it, or seen the undead getting ready to pounce on her.

Kohta switched his MK25 to his left hand and pulled his Nighthawk out with his right, flicked the safety off, and blasted a .45APC slug into the zombie's head just as it was beginning to pounce. Mary jumped back and stared at the pouncing zombie and the wall where most of its brain matter were splattered against the wall.

"Thanks Kohta," she said, slightly shaken at how close she came to becoming zombie chow.

"No worries," Kohta replied, flashing a toothy grin at her before blowing away a few more zombies with both handguns.

"I wish we could have torn these stairs out," Mary grumbled as she slammed more rounds home. "Made our life a hell of a lot easier."

"But where's the fun in that?" Kohta chuckled as he sighted his latest kill.

"We're getting overrun here!" Tex announced, pausing to snap off a shot from his own SCAR. "Fall back upstairs!"

Tex and Dino moved first with Skye close behind. Tex turned to her as they took up position at the top.

"Skye, get back to the nurse's office and protect those sisters and mother." She glared at him and looked as if she was about to shout at him before Dino cut in.

"You're the last line of defence if we fail," he said. Skye paused for a moment, then nodded and retreated down the hall. The last part of that conversation had gone unsaid, but it was still heard as 'You're the last line of defence if we fail. Get them and yourself out even if that means leaving us for dead.'

While they were falling back, Kohta and Mary held the stairs, and the reduced weight of fire was quickly becoming a problem, even with Kohta duel wielding like a badass.

"Kohta! Mary! We've got you covered! Get up here!" Dino shouted.

"Mary! Go!" Kohta shouted automatically.

Mary moved immediately, she was closer to the flight of stairs and started ascending quickly. Kohta, having been on the opposite side of the stairs from Mary, had a few extra steps to cover before he started climbing. Just as he ceased fire and turned to run for the stairs, a zombie found purchase underfoot and tackled him to the ground.

Kohta felt his MK25 leave his grip as he landed on his front on the floor, but rather than reach for it, he instead rolled over onto his back, smashing his left elbow into the face of the zombie that had tackled him, throwing it off him long enough for him to shoot it in the head with the last round in his Nighthawk's.

Then it dawned on Kohta, distracted by the heat of the moment, how much trouble he was in. He was on the ground, with an empty pistol as his only weapon to hand, and hundreds of undead coming for him. Sure enough, a heartbeat later, a black moaning corpse blocked out the light above him. Kohta gritted his teeth, clenched his fist and prepared to go down like a warrior.

Suddenly a snarling flash of brown, black and MultiCam tackled the zombie, clamping its mouthful of teeth around the zombie's neck and smashing it into the ground. Gunfire followed, short bursts that were dropping the zombies at the top of the stairs. Kohta looked over. Mary was standing at the bottom of the stairs, SCAR blazing with red fury in her eyes that matched her fiery red hair. She looked at him.

"Kohta! Move your fucking arse!" She shouted, before resuming fire at the zombies.

He didn't wait to be told twice. Kohta quickly rolled back over and pushed himself to his feet, pausing to snatch up his MK25 and whistle to his canine saviour before starting up the stairs, Krieger obediently following his master just a step behind.

"Cheers buddy," Kohta said, glancing down at Krieger as they jogged up the stairs together while he reloaded his pistols. "Saved my life again. That's a steak for you tonight."

"Hey! What about me?!" Mary shouted as she came up behind him. Kohta spun at the top of the stairs and chucked her a cheeky grin.

"What? I thought you hated steak?" He replied, just as if he were a smart-ass kid in school and not someone who'd nearly been eaten alive by a zombie.

Mary glared at him furiously before turning back around to vent her frustration into some more zombies. As she did, Dino leaned in close to Kohta's ear.

"You know she's gonna beat the crap outta you when we get back right?" He asked.

"Oh yeah," Kohta replied with a smile. "I know."

" _Guys! Good news! The baby's out!"_ Skye interrupted over the radio. _"And It's a girl!"_

"Happy days! Tell the nuns to prep for transport!" Tex replied as he turned down the hall. "Dino will carry the mother out! Mary! Kohta! Buy us time!"

"Grenades?" Kohta asked as he accepted Dino's M4 and a pair of spare magazines.

"Fuck it! Why not?!" Tex shouted back. Kohta smiled and started pulling grenades out of pouches while Mary started firing at the ones coming up the stairs.

"'Nades out!" Kohta shouted as he pulled the pins and tossed a pair of frag grenades over the staircase into the massed ranks of zombies below.

Contrary to popular belief, grenades were not instant kill weapons for taking out groups of people and zombies even less so. They were weapons designed to disorientate and wound and worked by making a loud bang and sending shrapnel flying in all directions. Shrapnel that would slash, puncture and bury itself in an unfortunate victim. That victim became a casualty, who, in a normal – living - army, would have to be evacuated and given medical care. From there, depending on the severity of the injury, could be healed and sent back to the front, or healed and sent home too badly wounded to fight, but as a living advertisement for why supporting a war effort may not be a good idea. They wouldn't kill the zombies unless they exploded on their heads, but they would amputate and damage their rotting limbs enough to slow them down, hopefully, long enough for the team and the civilians to evacuate.

The grenades detonated in the floor below and, just as expected a number of walkers became crawlers, and started tripping up their infected brethren as they tried to walk over them.

With a gap formed, Kohta started working over the ranks of undead coming up the stairs with Dino's M4 while Mary reloaded. Kohta wasn't a massive fan of the M4 after he'd used one in combat for the first time, preferring the knockdown power of 7.62, but still, he couldn't deny that it was still effective as he and eventually Mary started firing into them as they started a fighting retreat.

Behind them, the rest of the team was busy. Skye was leading the nuns out towards the fire escape to the roof with her weapon raised while Dino carried the new mother bridal style and the head nurse carried the new-born in her arms wrapped in the folds of her habit and Tex was simultaneously bringing up the rear while talking on the radio to the helo pilots.

" _Thunderbird 2 to Spectre one. We are overhead and ready for pick up. Over,"_ Harry's familiar voice announced over the team's radios as the windows shook from the gunship's downwash. _"Man… you guy's really kicked the hornet's nest…"_

"Choppers are here!" Tex announced both out loud and over the comms, in case they didn't get the message or weren't on comms. "Kohta! Mary! Get back here!"

"Copy that!" Kohta shouted as he and Mary then broke ranks and ran back down the hallway, Krieger as ever at the heels. The ground and building shook as someone, probably Harry's wingman started doing rocket runs and strafing runs down main street. Kohta nearly lost his footing but managed to keep it this time as he, Mary and Krieger burst out onto the fire escape and started climbing the fire escape towards the waiting helo on the roof

" _Kohta! Mary! Where the hell are you?!"_ Tex demanded over the radio, _"We're already in the helo and waiting on you!"_

"15 seconds out!" Kohta replied as they hammered up the stairs three at a time. Below them, the fire escape shook as the first undead stumbled into, and then fell off, it before the followers finally found the way up.

"Get ready for dust off, we've got zombies on our ass!" Kohta added.

"So, what else is new?" Mary laughed. Despite himself, Kohta laughed. This was what he lived for. He hadn't eaten, probably killed hundreds of zombies that day and nearly been killed! But he'd saved lives, done his job and maybe, just maybe, gotten closer to the girl he loved. This had been a good day.

They reached the roof a few moments later. Harry's Thunderbird was hovering at the end of the roof, blasting it with gale force winds from the downdraft of its titanic rotors. The rest of the civilians had already been evacuated by the Knighthawks and were on their way back, they were the last boots on the ground. Oswald and Tex were stood in the side door, beckoning them to get on the chopper. The couple ran for it, with Kohta carrying Krieger by the grab handle on his vest like a hairy handbag because he was afraid of choppers and flying in general.

Mary boarded first, then Krieger, followed by Kohta who jumped aboard and patted Oswald on the shoulder. "Last man!"

Oswald nodded to him. "Everyone's aboard sir." He said into his helmet mic in that calming English accent Dino had once named 'Butler English'.

" _Alright, we're outta here!"_ Harry replied. The Thunderhawk's engine pitch increased as the heavy gunship pulled up and away from the roof just as the first zombies reached the top of the roof.

As the gunship accelerated away and turned for home, Kohta collapsed in his seat and relaxed. He could feel the adrenaline wearing off and suddenly realized how tired he was, and only the roar of the helo's engines were keeping him awake. He looked around the cabin. Beyond Skye (who'd already fallen asleep) and Mary who he was sat next to, was the mother they'd nearly died protecting, nursing her new-born daughter with a look of elation and exhaustion.

"Congratulations," Kohta called down the cabin in Japanese. "What are you going to name her?"

The mother thought for a moment and looked at the sleeping contractor next to her who'd defended her and assisted in her delivery.

"Sora," the mother replied. Kohta smiled and nodded approvingly and settled back into his seat.

"What does Sora mean?" Mary asked him. Kohta smiled at her.

"Sky."

* * *

 **Well, thanks to my two awesome beta readers, who I really did not expect to get this turned around that quickly, you guys get a Christmas present from me.**

 **I hope you enjoyed it Please Review/Favourite/Follow.**

 **Anyway, wherever you are, I want to say thank you for your continued support of my writing and wish you a very merry christmas and happy new year**

 **Jango**


	10. Chapter 10

**A/N: This chapter is Rated M due to containing Lemon (That's sex for any noobs.) If this offends you I recommend you skip the first half of this Chapter. You have been warned.**

 **In Memory of Alex  
** **...  
** **Rockstar to the end**

* * *

 _Ronin_

 _Chapter Ten_

As soon as the Spartan PMC choppers returned, the contractors disembarked and returned to their HQ building with barely a word said until they returned to their team ready rooms and started their post-mission rituals.

"Phew!" Kohta sighed as he peeled off his sweat-soaked body armour, stripping the kit off his body armour and turned it in for cleaning. "Well, that was fun."

"Too right," Dino replied as he flipped on the coffee machine in the corner. "And you nearly got your arse chowed again mate! Looks like the first rounds on you tonight!"

"Fair enough." Kohta laughed. It was a long-standing Spartan tradition that whoever came the closest to getting killed in the last mission bought the first round of drinks in the bar when they got back.

"Speaking of which…" Tex cut in, "Mary, Kohta, get your gear in for cleaning, then get upstairs and get it outta your system. Rest of you get some food, take a shower, whatever makes you human. Post mission briefing at 17:00."

Mary's face hardened as she grabbed Kohta by the arm and practically dragged him out of the room by the elbow. Skye, Tex and Dino smiled at each other.

…

Mary forcefully dragged Kohta upstairs to her room in silence, although Kohta was making protests to being dragged and asking where she was taking him all the way up. She pushed him into her room and locked the door behind her.

"Mary?" Kohta asked, "What is this abou…"

Mary spun on her heels and without warning, punched him in the face. Hard.

"FUCKING ASSHOLE!" She screamed as he stumbled back, a stinging red mark forming on his face.

"What did I do?!" Kohta cried, confused. This just served to piss Mary off even more as she dived at him, red-faced and started screaming at him, punctuated her shouting with hitting while Kohta did his level best to block her without hurting her.

"WHY! ARE! YOU! ALWAYS! FUCKING! LIKE THIS?! YOU NEARLY GOT FUCKING KILLED! HOW ARE YOU SO FUCKING CALM?!"

"Well hang on," Kohta said, his hands up and just letting her pound on his chest. "You nearly got killed today too!"

"Don't you DARE change the subject, Kohta Hirano!" Mary seethed, having finally stopping pounding him and switching to pointing a slender finger in his face. "You nearly got killed and you're acting like you don't even care! Did you ever think about how I'd would feel if you died?!"

"Better me than you!" Kohta replied forcefully. Mary stopped as Kohta started ranting back. "You think I don't care?! Why do you think I told you to move first when we were on the stairs? I couldn't leave until you were out of harm's way!"

"What?! You think I can't take care of myself?!" Mary snapped. "Did you forget I'm a contractor too, Kohta? I knew and accepted the consequences same as you! Or was is because I'm a woman?!"

"Oh! You want to play the sex card, do you?!" Kohta shouted, properly angry now. "You know damn well I would've done the same thing if it was you! Or Skye! Or Tex! Dino! Krieger! Slater! Harry! Hobbs! Janet! Mike! Bill! Or even fucking Takashi! Because I have just about had enough of my friends getting killed when I could've saved them! So newsflash! I didn't do it because you're a woman! I did it because I…"

He hesitated.

"… Because I care about you, Mary." He finally admitted. "And I don't want to see another of my friends get killed on my watch. Man or Woman."

Kohta sank onto the bed and sat while Mary stared shocked. She didn't expect the argument to get so out of control like that. And she was just starting to realise what her life meant to Kohta.

"I didn't know you cared." She said softly, sitting down next to him on the bed. "You should safeguarded your own life before mine."

"Of course, I care," Kohta replied, eyes still fixed on the wall ahead. "But maybe I think my life isn't worth living if you're not in it."

Mary put her hand on the back of his head and he turned to look at her.

"Prove it."

He answered by pressing his lips to hers. He'd wanted this since he'd first met her, since he'd first seen her in combat, and since she'd held his hand at the passing of a comrade.

Kohta deepened the kiss, tentatively at first, as if he were still afraid that his feelings were one-sided, but deepened it into intensity as Mary parted her lips and brushed his with her tongue to try and draw his out. He gladly complied, one of his hands brushed itself through her fiery red hair as he pulled her close while the other explored the small of her back and descended lower along the smooth curve of her spine.

Mary broke the kiss and pulled away smiling. For a horrible moment, Kohta thought she'd changed her mind or that he'd gone too far. But such thoughts vanished as she ran the zipper on her zombie blood stained combat shirt and pulled it over her head, discarding it to the corner of the room and bent over before him and started pulling at the laces of her boots.

"Well don't just sit there." She said with a coy smile. "Do you want this or not?"

Kohta threw his shirt off a split second later and started on his boots. He just about had them off when Mary tackled him to the bed, stripped only to a white bra and panties, and started kissing him ferociously while thumbing with his belt buckle. Wasting no time in catching up, Kohta wrapped his arms around her back and squeezed the ample mounds of her buttocks causing her to moan sensually into his mouth as he continued to massage her posterior.

Mary eventually broke the kiss, a small bridge of saliva strung out between them as she worked her way upright and unfastened his belt buckle, pulling down his stained MultiCam trousers and revealing a pair of grey boxers beneath, with a noticeably pronounced bulge beneath them.

"Well now," Mary said, first staring at the budge in Kohta's boxers before lifting her gaze up to meet his eyes. "I must be doing something right."

"I doubt you could do wrong." Kohta murmured, still not quite believing that this was happening. She was beautiful, in face and body, and he couldn't help but gaze as he took in the shape of her. Her blood red hair had worked its way free of its bobble and now cascaded to its full length down her back, contrasting against her toned pale body which was marred by the occasional battle scar and curved in all the right places. His eyes paused at the lacy white bra that held her breasts before continuing downwards over the faintly pronounced abs to where his eyes stopped at the white lace panties that were practically sat on top of his manhood. Close enough that he could feel heat radiating from her and see the slightest shadow of a wet patch beginning to form…

Mary felt his manhood twitch below her, straining against the thin fabric that separated them. She smiled, feeling her own primal heat and arousal flare-up in turn. Without taking her eye of Kohta, she reached up and unhooked her bra. She felt him twitch against her womanhood as she discarded the item.

"Whoa…" Kohta murmured again as she threw away her bra and released her breasts. They were big and full, not as big as Skye's and nowhere near the size of Shizuka's, but slightly larger than Busujima's or Takagi's, and size highlighted by a light dusting of freckles on their upper slopes which only served to enhance their beauty and size. His hard-on throbbed to the point of almost being painful.

Still straddling him, Mary lay down on top of him, pressing her boobs against his muscular chest and once again claimed his lips for her own. This time their kiss was more passionate, desperate and lustful. As her boobs massaged his chest, Kohta once again reached over her back to her shapely ass. This time, he slipped his fingers beneath the hem of her panties and started to massage the raw flesh beneath. As his hands continued their work, kneading her sumptuous rump, he worked them lower and into the crack between buttocks until he came to a patch of warm, moist flesh.

Mary gasped and broke their kiss, moaning as she felt his fingers caress her womanhood. Kohta thought for a moment he'd done something horribly wrong before she shot him a look that begged him to keep going and started kissing him even more fiercely than before, moaning into his mouth as his fingers slipped inside her.

As his fingers explored the entrance to her cave, she snaked a hand down his body between them and past the hem of his boxers and took hold of his throbbing member. His eyes flew open at her touch, but he forced himself to relax as she began to massage manhood.

For a while they stayed that way, letting the heat and pressure build as they explored and fondled each other's bodies until they were forced their lips apart for air. Chests heaving, they looked into each other's eyes. They both wanted it.

Mary got off him and stood beside the bed, removing her panties while Kohta wriggled his boxers free of his hips before she threw them off completely and straddled him again, this time taking his throbbing vertical member in hand and positioning it near the damp heat of her entrance.

"Wait." Kohta paused, stopping her by placing a hand on her supporting elbow. She looked at him, almost angry that she had been stopped.

"Are you sure?" he asked.

"Yes." She said huskily, before slipping his member inside her.

Kohta's eyes widened as the feeling of warm, moist tightness engulfed him, both of them moaning in pleasure as he sank deeper into her. Kohta may have been a virgin, but Mary wasn't. He knew that, and encountered no resistance as he sank to his full depth inside her.

"Wow…" he sighed as she pulsed warmly around him. Mary chuckled lightly, blushing furiously as she ground her hips against his and shifted him inside her.

"Now you just relax and enjoy the ride mister." She replied sexily before she started to bounce up and down along his shaft. The feeling of his member sliding in and out of her was exquisite, he placed his hands on her hips and started to buck his hips in time with hers desperately trying to get deeper into her. He could feel the pressure beginning to build in his balls, he wasn't going to last long.

Mary was losing herself too. The movement and pleasure from her nether regions began to cloud over her senses to the point that she couldn't keep upright so fell forwards, pushing her arms out in front of her and to either side of Kohta to support herself. It was wild, the waves of pleasure came faster and harder with each thrust he made into her. Drawn breaths became grunts, moans, and then screams of ecstasy. Kohta wrapped his arms around the back of her neck and pulled her closer.

"Mary…" He moaned into her ear. "I'm gonna…"

"Do it." She replied. She could feel her own orgasm building inside her. "Do it now!"

They bucked harder and harder, the moans getting louder as their skin slapped together. They looked into each other's eyes until finally he grimaced and slammed his hips into hers, digging his fingers into her hips as his seed shot deep inside her, her walls clamping down around him as she let out a long, satisfied moan before they collapsed.

They lay there on top of each other for a moment, catching their ragged breath as they came down from their ecstasy filled bliss. Kohta regained his senses and looked at her as she lay just inches away on his chest. Her hair was a cascading mess, her skin was glowing from a thin sheen of sweat that had formed from their exertions, her face was flushed, and her chest was still heaving. She was the most beautiful thing he'd ever seen.

He reached down and brushed a stray hair out of her eyes with the tip of his finger and tucked it in behind her ear; a gesture he'd always wanted to do to a woman. She looked up at him, her jade green eyes looking into him expectantly.

"Mary, I love you." He murmured at last. She smiled and moved forward to kiss him. He met her halfway and in that instant, they both felt more complete than they ever had.

…

Outside the room, leaning against the door having listened in on the goings on that her friends had been up to, Skye smiled to herself.

"About damn time." She said before she turned down the hallway to leave them in full privacy.

…

Two days after the battle of Tateraoi, most of the contractors involved had yet to buy themselves a single drink in their off time.

People were grateful. The Spartan Contractors, who when they first arrived some considered no better than bloodthirsty mercenaries, were seen as heroes who'd put themselves in harm's way to save others. The helicopter pilots, in particular, were doing well from the hero worship, but there was a rumour going around about a team of heroes who'd supposedly held off ten thousand zombies to protect a woman in labour and her baby.

Regardless, there was work to be done. Lord Takagi had a specific mission for them, and so Colonel Lail was summoned to the Prime Minister's office for a meeting.

"One of our outer settlements is having some trouble." Lord Takagi said, as ever sat at his desk with Saeko Busujima standing nearby.

"What kind of trouble?" asked Lail asked.

"I will be frank Colonel." Lord Takagi sighed. "The Niko Settlement is a problem. They persist in the belief that the infected are simply sick people that can be cured given time, treatment and research. They refuse SDF protection and leach off our supplies while giving only the bare minimum back. Now they ask for a generator and have finally asked for protection against the undead. However, they refuse to increase their tithes to the state in return."

"Right…" Lail replied. He knew the type of people, and also knew that his contractors hated these kinds of gigs. Lord Takagi continued.

"While I am forced to grant their request for a new generator, I will also be sending one of my…" He paused for a moment while he searched for the right word. "Fiercer ministers to _impress_ upon them the importance of shipping their tithes."

Lail couldn't help but notice a smile form on Miss Busujima's face at the Prime minister's choice of words when describing the minister.

"I see. So, what do you require of us?" Lail asked "A personal protection detail for your minister?" Lord Takagi shook his head.

"No." He said, and gestured towards Miss Busujima. "I shall be sending Busujima-san along to act as a personal bodyguard for the minister. I require your contractors to provide transport and to undertake other operations during the negotiations."

"Other operations?"

"The Niko settlement claim they cannot go out and scavenge due to the numbers of infected in the area, yet will do nothing to reduce their numbers," Takagi answered. "So, you will reduce _their_ numbers for them."

"I understand Kakka," Lail replied. "When do they leave?"

"Tomorrow at dawn."

"I'll have a team ready. Please excuse me."

…

Well before dawn the following morning, Saeko Busujima was wide awake and packed for her mission to the Niko settlement with her travel bag beside her. She was dressed in one of her usual suits with Murata-tou hung from her belt, flexible enough that she could move and fight if she needed to, while still looking professional enough to be a presence at meetings. She'd grown from a teenage girl to a full woman over the years, although she could still squeeze her way into her old school uniform, something which Takashi was thankful for when he was busy stripping her out of it…

Saeko put those thoughts on hold as she spotted her young woman she would be acting as bodyguard for the next few days walking into the apartment building lobby.

"Good morning Saeko-san." Saya yawned, stretching out as she walked up to join her best friend. Saya too had changed little in terms of appearance, though she'd since taken on a womanlier body and changed her hairstyle so that it now ran straight down her back to about hip height rather than in the twin pigtails that she'd had it in during the outbreak. She too was wearing a suit like Saeko although hers was black rather than dark blue, and in place of the sword, she had her mother's old luger in a leather holster under her jacket.

"Good morning Takagi-dono," Saeko said, bowing to her friend in a semi-formal manner that she knew Saya hated in others but tolerated as an in-joke from her friends. "This one has the honour to be your personal Yojimbo for this excursion. Our transport and escort await your pleasure. Shall we go?"

Saya's mouth formed into a smirk as her left eye twitched slightly. "Baka. It's too early in the morning for that! Let's get moving."

"As my lady commands," Saeko replied with a smirk as she and Saya departed the building and headed across town in the direction of the mercenaries building.

The streets were quiet and cold at this time of day, most people were sensibly still asleep and tucked away in their futons but it did give Saya and Saeko to have some private girl time together.

"What do you think of the Spartan contractors Saya-san?" Saeko asked. Takagi thought for a moment before replying.

"Honestly, I'm impressed." She admitted casually. "When my father told me that he was hiring mercenaries, I was skeptical as to how effective they could be and whether they'd cause more problems than they solved. But from what I've seen and heard, they're nothing like what I expected. They're professional, respectful, courteous, not to mention very good at gathering resources and teaching. And no one can deny how well they did at Tateraoi, so yes, I'm impressed. What do you think of them?"

"From what I've seen they are honourable men and women who take pride in their work," Saeko answered, and from what she had seen it was true. Though she had only seen them in meetings or occasionally drinking off duty in the Jasmine Dragon, neither she or Saya had never seen them in combat. And they both knew that even the best men could break in combat… Hirano had taught them that much…

…

In the Spartan PMC garage, the object of Saeko's musings was busying himself behind one of the F150's with the exploration of the back of his girlfriend's mouth with his tongue, just as she was doing with his, before they were rudely interrupted by Dino.

"If you two are done with sucking each other's faces off, Skye could use a hand loading some medical supplies and I need a hand with the 240." He announced loudly enough that anyone around could hear them.

They broke the kiss apart and Mary shot Dino an angry glare before giving Kohta a peck on the cheek and jogging over to help Skye with the medical supplies. After a moment, Kohta emerged from behind the pickup and helped Dino install the M240 machine gun on one of the F-150's roll cages.

While they did have a number of ex-US military Humvees, Spartan PMC contractors generally preferred to use modified Ford F-150 pick up trucks as their primary ground transport. Aside from having better fuel mileage than the Humvees, the F-150 was also more practical in civilian environments and used more or less standard components that, if necessary, could be scavenged from other civilian pickup trucks. Spartan ones featured a removable roll cage over the rear bed that also sported a turret mount that could mount a variety of weaponry. They had 2 for the trip to Niko, one was carrying the spare generator for the settlement, the other was fitted with a roll cage and armed as the convoy escort, carrying spare ammo and other equipment.

"Sorry about that Dino." Kohta apologized as he helped install the machine gun into the turret mount. "Things have just been a bit… crazy."

"No worries mate," Dino replied cheerfully. "You finally got yourself a hot ass girlfriend. About bloody time you two got together!"

Kohta laughed and thanked Dino. 'About bloody time' had been the recurring reaction of most of the contractors when it became known that Mary and Kohta had started dating. A few bets had even been won and lost over whether it would be Mary or Skye, much to their collective amusement.

"Just keep it off the field mate. Don't wanna get bitten cause you two were busy in the bushes." Dino stated as he jumped down from the truck's bed. "Alright, I'm gonna grab the zombie bait from the fridge. Stay here and watch the trucks would ya? And keep an eye out for the minister and their bodyguard. They should be here soon."

"Got it," Kohta replied as he hooked up a 200-round bog to the gun and fed the belt into the chamber before moving on to check his personal kit.

Aside from the escort run, this was a search and destroy mission. The plan was they were going to set up a BBQ in the middle of a street, dump some deer guts or similar inedible meat on it, let the smell of cooking meat drawn them in, then fire on them from multiple rooftops from different directions until they were dead. It was a tried and tested strategy that, as long as they had plenty of ammo (which they would), and tore up the stairs to the roof so the undead couldn't get at them, they'd be fine. No near death last stands like Tateraoi this time.

While he was checking his weapon Mary and Skye returned with medical supplies and started loading them into the cargo F150. Kohta had just finished checking his weapon and was helping them when a female Japanese voice rang out across the car park in English.

"Excuse me? Are you the team heading to the Niko settlement?"

Kohta stopped and froze, almost dropping the box of medical equipment he was holding. He knew that voice, it belonged to a friend. One who'd betrayed him, hurt him, then cast him aside. He turned to see if he was right. He was.

" _Takagi._ " He breathed. Skye and Mary heard him and turned to first look at him, then at her. Their eyes narrowed, glaring at the woman who'd hurt their friend.

"Yeah, that's us," Tex said, stepping forward to greet Takagi, unaware of the death glares his female teammates were sending her way. "You must be Minister Takagi, correct?"

"Hai." She replied shaking his hand in greeting before gesturing to the raven-haired woman with her. "This is Busujima Saeko, my personal bodyguard."

"A pleasure to meet you." Saeko greeted, bowing slightly.

"I'm Tex, team leader." Tex continued with a slight nod to Saeko before turning to point out the rest of the team. "That's Dino, our explosives guy. That's Skye, our medic. And that's Mary and Kohta, our snipers."

'Kohta?' Takagi mentally repeated. She followed Tex was pointing to where a pair of attractive young women in combat clothes who were glaring at her, accompanied by a young man who looked very familiar. Her eyes widened.

"H-Hirano?" She stammered. "Is… Is that you?"

"Hai, Takagi-daijin. Busujima-san." He said bluntly with a respectful nod to Saeko. "You're both looking well."

"Hai…" Saya replied, slightly caught off guard but the unexpected confidence in his voice. "It…em… its been a while." Kotha glanced at his watch.

"Five years, seven months, ten days, thirteen hours, 27 minutes since you kicked me out," He replied, folding his arms in defiance against her. "Not that I'm counting..."

Takagi's nose flared in anger. The old Kohta would never have dared to speak to her like that" "We didn't _kick_ you out, Hirano." She snarled. "You _left!_ " Kohta didn't rise at Takagi's backlash but instead just bowed his head at her.

"As you say, Daijin." He replied with an air of politeness, though mainly out of professionalism. He turned to Tex. "Boss the gun truck and supply wagons are loaded and ready. If it's alright with you I'll man the two-forty."

"Copy that Kohta," Tex replied with a nod. "Mary, drive the gun truck. Skye go shotgun. Minister Takagi, you and Miss Busujima will ride with myself and Dino in the supply truck. If that is acceptable to you...?"

"It is," Saya replied sharply before pushing past Tex and Dino and heading for the supply truck, Saeko following silently in her wake. Tex shot Dino a look, to which the Australian shrugged.

"Alright. Mount up." Tex ordered. He and Dino turned towards the supply truck while Skye Mary and Kohta headed for the gun truck. Just as he was about to jump in the bed and man the gun, Mary pulled Kohta into a tight hug after planting a kiss on his lips.

"To show the bitch what she missed," Mary whispered in his ear with a smile before they parted and climbed aboard.

In the back of the supply truck, Saya glared at the redhead as she kissed Hirano and held him close. While sat next to her, with a look of quiet concern, Saeko switched between watching Kohta and Saya.

Saeko hadn't known that it would be Kohta's team that would be escorting them, but part of her thought that it was good that it was. She didn't agree with Lord Takagi that keeping them deliberately apart was in their best interest. While Kohta had clearly matured, emotionally as well as physically, during their separation, Saya obviously hadn't. She was still in many ways the angry, emotional girl she had been at the start of the outbreak and in some ways, had even gotten worse.

Kohta had been the first male she liked as more than a friend with the possible exception of Takashi. When he left her to go to America, it had caused her to take an even dimmer view on men who wanted to get close to her, which only got worse after her father became prime minister and she was once again forced to deal with social climbers who wanted to use her to get closer to her powerful father.

Saeko hoped that maybe by putting the two together, they could mend some of the old wounds they'd inflicted on each other. However, it seemed that Kohta was still angry at Saya for what she'd done and found happiness with the red-haired girl that had kissed him in front of them.

And Saeko wondered what that would do to her friend.

* * *

 **Dear readers**

 **I hope you enjoyed the chapter, which is also my first attempt at a lemon scene of any significant length. This chapter is also dedicated to a friend of mine who recently, sadly, past away. Alex was a good friend, who I would often troubleshoot parts of my story with and just rock out with.**

 **As ever, please review/ follow and favorite. I'm keen to hear your feedback, constructive or complimentary.**

 **Don't know when the next chapter will be released but I can say after this we will be entering the final arks of Ronin. I've still got a few more chapters left to go but things will be drawing to a close.**

 **Stay tuned for next updates**

 **Jango**


	11. Chapter 11

_Ronin_

 _Chapter Eleven_

The journey to the Nikko settlement from Tokyo by car would've been a long one even before the apocalypse, now it was taking even longer, even along the government cleared route.

There was an awkward silence in the rear of the two vehicles traveling down the abandoned highway. In the back seats, Saya Takagi either just stared at her former crush in the rear bed of the pickup truck in front, or just staring out the window at the passing scenery. Dino spotted her staring out the window and, in an effort to break the awkward silence, tried to strike up a conversation.

"You know you're both very lucky." He announced, catching Saya and Saeko's attention. "Despite everything that's happened, you still have a beautiful country to live in. Not many places can say that anymore."

"Lucky?" Saya repeated with spite. "We lost over 90% of our population in the outbreak and we were hit by an EMP. How are we 'lucky'?"

"Well," Dino thought for a moment. "Due to Japanese gun laws, you didn't have a significant post fall armed rebel movement to deal with. Because of the reduced number of people, the smog in the cities has gone down, and Japan, unlike some places we've been, had the sense to turn off it's nuclear power stations before they could be overrun and go into meltdown or explode. So yeah, I'd say you were fairly lucky."

"Are there places really like that?" Saeko asked before Saya could come up with a retort.

"Oh yeah," Dino replied. "South America's bad. Still a lot of cartel violence down there. Africa's gang warfare and pirate problem has gotten much worse than it was. As for Europe, practically everything east of Berlin and south of Prague is like something out of World War 3. You can't even go into most of Ukraine any more without a HAZMAT suit."

"Yeah that was a bad job," Tex added. "I ain't ever going back there again."

"So where did you take Hirano after you took him in?" Saya asked, spitefully. Saeko shot her a look while Dino and Tex glanced at each other.

"After he joined the company and got over to the US," Tex began. "Kohta trained with us at the Spartan PMC training academy in California while also doing on the job training as well. He was a hard worker, working out was a pain for him but he pushed through it and was generally a natural contactor. He did other training courses around other contracts, he did his sniper training in England, again mostly on the job, and is generally one of our most valuable assets."

He let what he said sink in before he confronted the elephant in the room.

"Look, Kohta told us what happened between you when he left Japan." Saya glared at him through the rear-view mirror, but he continued regardless. "That said, there are two sides to every story, I'm sure he made mistakes too. But don't hold it against him. I suggest you move on and let bygones be bygones."

"And why should I do that?" Saya asked through gritted teeth.

"Kohta has stood tall in hell," Tex replied bluntly. "He came to us a fat, broken teenage boy who'd just been dumped by the one girl he liked. He then got back up, trained his ass off and fought like a goddamned demon almost every day since then. Along the way he's lost a lot of friends, some of them died in his arms. He hides it well, but we know he thinks it was his fault. The fact he hasn't broken down. turned to the bottle, or eaten his gun frankly astounds me. That redhead girl you saw him kissing? That's Mary, and the first major girlfriend he's ever had aside from you, and also the first sign that he's actually starting to wind down and live a little aside from just being a soldier. I suggest you just let him go and move on like he has."

Saeko thought Saya was about to bite back at the Texan contractor with all the fury she was known for, but she didn't. Instead, her pink haired friend said nothing and just folded her arms and returned to looking out the window at the passing countryside.

…

Roughly an hour after the conversation in the supply truck, the convoy arrived at the Nikko settlement. The Settlement was built in what had been a newly built Accident, Emergency and research hospital. It had been one of the places that had been working to find a cure for the zombie virus following the outbreak. As a result, the SDF and local police had turned the place into a fortress, both for keeping people and the undead out as well as in, so the doctors could keep working uninterrupted and any internal outbreak could be contained. And, despite the government having long since told them to stop, some of the doctors and scientists were still rumored to be working on a vaccine or a cure.

After being admitted into the building's underground car park by a series of manned gates, the contractors dismounted and secured the area before allowing Minister Takagi and her escort to dismount. The car park was illuminated by overhead lights, which showed that the place had power and maybe their generator was not as broken as they had been lead to believe.

A stairwell door opened close to where they'd parked, and a group of three people appeared. Two of them, a middle-aged man and a woman, were wearing white lab coats, recently washed and in good condition. The final one was a man wearing grease-stained coveralls who looked like a technician and eagerly looked at the supply truck.

"Minister Takagi," The man in the lab coat said with a smile as he approached. "Welcome to Nikko. I see you've brought the new generator we asked for, though not the extra security we requested...?"

"Doctor Tanaka," Takagi replied. "We bought the generator you requested because you stated that your power had failed." She paused and glanced upwards at the overhead lights "But you appear to have fixed that issue…"

"Bondo-san here was able to repair the generator temporarily," Tanaka stated, gesturing to the technician. "But we do need a replacement if we are to continue our work here."

Takagi shifted slightly uncomfortably as she cleared her throat. "Yes, that, and your security request are part of the reason my father sent me here to meet with you."

"I see," Tanaka replied. He shifted his sight over to the contractors and eyed them and their weapons with a hint of disdain. "And they are...?"

"We are PMC contractors, sir," Kohta replied. "We've been contracted to conduct operations in the area." Tanaka shrugged.

"Very well. You may store your weapons here while you're in our area." He said in well spoken English. There was an awkward silence among the contractors as they shifted their weapons slightly and shot glances among themselves.

"Perhaps Hirano was not clear Doctor. We were sent here to conduct _clearance_ operations." Tex stated evenly. "And for that, we shall be retaining our weapons." Tex turned to towards his team and nodded towards the gun truck. "Fireteam Spectre let's move."

"Clearance operations?" The female doctor questioned before her eyes widened and her face turned to shock. "You can't do that! They're just people who are sick! You can't just go around murdering people in the streets!"

Every one of the contractor team held back a sigh and a shrug but just rolled their eyes as they turned back towards their gun truck. How there were still people five years into a zombie apocalypse that thought the infected were still people, none of them knew. But they'd all dealt with them enough times to know that, in their eyes, anyone who carried a gun and had the intent to use it to actively 'hunt' the undead was evil and a mass murder. Whatever excuses or arguments they made would not change their minds if seeing their loved ones tearing people apart couldn't.

"Ma'am," Tex stated in his most democratic 'matter of fact' voice, "You yourself claimed to your government that you are unable to scavenge supplies in the local area due to the number of 'infected' in the area. As a result, we have been sent to clear out the undead so you can resume scavenging operations. If you have a problem with that, I suggest you take it up with your government." Tex turned to Takagi and said to her in a somewhat softer tone "Minister, we'll be on call should you need us. Have a nice day." before turning to join his team in the gun truck and leaving the settlement without another word.

…

Within a few hours, the contractors were in position and had set their plan into action.

It was a simple bait and kill tactic. They'd hooked up a loudspeaker to a car battery, placed it in the middle of the open car park of an abandoned centre, plugged in a iPod with a playlist on repeat, ringed it with a set of claymores and left it running while the team split up and took up fire positions surrounding the carpark. They wouldn't get every zombie in the city with this. Far from it, they'd be lucky if they got 10% with the ammo they were carrying. But if they repeated it a few times it would reduce the number of zombies in the area enough that even the pacifist hippy 'zed huggers' at Nikko would be able to go out and scavenge with a minimum of arms. All that was left the for the contractors to do was build their firing positions and wait for a herd to gather in the kill box.

Kohta had chosen to build his firing position in a third-floor room in the remains of a fairly seedy looking love hotel. It had earned him a few raised eyebrows from the other members of the team when he'd announced his intent to set up there, and Tex had then split him and Mary up, posting her in another building on the opposite side of the kill zone. Not that they would've done anything anyway. They were on a mission, and besides as Dino had told him; "Making out in body armor is like watching two walruses do missionary, it's just awkward and uncomfortable for everyone."

The door had been locked from the inside, the alcohol from the minibar was gone the empty bottles strewn about the floor, the coffee table was missing and the window was smashed, which read as whoever was in here had been bitten, locked the door so they couldn't get out, got drunk, thrown the table through the window to break it and jumped. Judging by the wear and damage to the room, around 4 years ago. But it wasn't anything Kohta hadn't seen a thousand times before, so he just proceeded to move the mattress off the bed and lay it down by the window, set up his SCAR and made himself comfortable.

"In position," Kohta reported over the teamcom as he sighted down his rifle. "Starting to get a few customers."

 _"Copy that,"_ Tex replied. _"Check fire until we have enough customers. See if the MWARI has any herds coming in."_ Kohta clicked off the channel and detached the reprogramed iPhone from its juggernaut case clip that attached it to his body armour.

One of the things that had become even more abundant after the apocalypse was the number of smartphones, either found in the pockets of their dead owners or abandoned when they ran out of power. Just before the outbreak their potential tactical value was just being discovered and post-outbreak, they became a very useful piece of kit for both survivors and operators; Entire countries worth of maps or entire encyclopaedias of survival guides could be stored on them, or as Kohta was using it for, streaming live aerial reconnaissance footage.

High above the contractors, a MWARI aircraft was monitoring the area. The MWARI was another example of the global military hardware surplus that had fallen into the hands of the private hands through either legitimate or less than legitimate means, although in this case, it was the former.

The MWARI was a small, 2-seater aircraft designed and built in South Africa for counterinsurgency, reconnaissance and strike missions. Doing more or less the same job that the legendary Reaper drones did within US military service, the MWARI had a few major advantages over its American counterpart for contractor purposes; it was smaller, cheaper, and much, much easier to maintain in the field than a high tech drone while being able to do more or less the same job just as well. The only downside was the MWARI could only stay up along as its pilots could.

Right now, the MWARI was orbiting just below eight thousand feet, ready to provide eyes in the sky as the contractors needed and drop a couple of laser-guided bombs on request. Kohta tapped the app that slaved the MWARI's nose-mounted camera to his phone and cycled through the filters and modes before selecting thermal and adjusting the filter setting slightly. Despite being dead and producing little in the way of body heat themselves, they still absorbed heat from exposure to the sun, much like a shark or any other cold-blooded predator. And sure enough, they were showing up on the thermal.

"Guys, I've got a few large groups heading our way," Kotha reported. "Estimate a couple thousand zeds, too many for us to handle with what we've got."

 _"Copy, seen,"_ Tex replied, meaning he was looking at the same footage Kohta was. _"We'll use the MWARI and bomb the bastards. I'll contact the pilot for the strike, everyone else just chill."_

"'Just chill' he says," Kohta mumbled off the mic. "Just chill while there are a few thousand zombies in front of me and its about to rain high explosive? Sure, why not?"

He propped up the iPhone to one side and settled back in behind his rifle, scanning the area in front of him. The number of zombies in the car park was growing nicely, drawn by the sound of the now playing AC: DC's 'Thunderstruck'. Most were gathered around the base of the speaker system trying to get at it, but they'd set the thing up in the base of a flatbed truck they'd found, it was out of reach and safe for the time being.

Shifting his sights, Kohta instead tried to spot Mary's sniper nest. He knew she'd set up in a house on the far side of the car park, but he didn't know which one. She was every bit as capable a sniper as he was, if not better. She wouldn't be exposing herself with her rifle sticking out a window like someone would in a movie, she'd be set back into a room in the shadows…

His phone buzzed as a message came in. It was from Mary;

' _Got you. Hotel, 3_ _rd_ _floor, 2_ _nd_ _window from the right. ;) x'_

He rolled his eyes and typed back a response.

'Yeah, you got me. Still trying to peg you, got it down to three possibilities.'

 _'Better keep trying then_ luv _;) how's the room? x'_

'Shit. Mini bar's been raided. bed's uncomfortable and no company. What's a lonely man to do?'

'Take a cold shower and remember that I'll make it up to you when we get back to base x'

Kohta smiled and set an eye back to his sight, scanning the far buildings one more time. He paused over a blue painted house on the far side of the square, there was just a shade of yellow out of place in the black room. He adjusted the focus on his scope upped the magnification, the yellow dash resolved into the form of his girlfriend prone behind her sniper rifle.

'Got you.'He typed with a self-satisfied smile.

' _Congratulations. You get a cookie x'_ She sent back, followed a few moments later by a photo. It was a selfie of her taken sometime before they got together, of her wearing nothing more than a bath towel covering only the essential bits and leaving _very_ little to the imagination.

Kohta's eyes bulged slightly and his face turned a few shades redder than what would be considered normal. For the briefest moment, he considered taking a 'comfort break', but decided to simply save the photo for later. Besides, there was nothing worse than being interrupted mid-wank by a zombie, or survivor… or Tex on the radio…

" _Alright everyone take cover. MWARI is making its bombing run."_

High above them, the MWARI broke off from its holding pattern and commenced its attack run, dropping down rapidly from its orbit altitude for a low-level strike. At the appropriate altitude, the pilot depressed the nipple on the control column and released the ordinance. Four, 500-pound bombs detached themselves from the underwing hardpoints and dropped. Their onboard guidance systems locked onto the laser from the ground team's target designator and directed the warheads to target.

On the ground, Kohta less saw the impacts, but more felt the bombs hit the ground, each one detonating with a force greater than most artillery rounds. The shockwave from the blast forced his head down as it caused dust and a few bits of loose plaster in the room to fall and kicked up a debris and bodies across the carpark. But over the sound of the explosions, the sound that rang through Kohta's ears was the sound of Mary screaming over the radio as thunder across the carpark.

"SHIT!"

Kohta panicked. "Mary?! MARY?!" He couldn't see anything through the smoke and debris kicked up. He dropped his eyes to his scope and started searching frantically while Tex kept trying to raise Mary over the comms. As the smoke began to clear, they were all mortified by what they saw.

The entire row of houses that Mary had been positioned in had collapsed. A lot of buildings had become structurally weakened after years of abandonment, sometimes all that was needed to bring one down was a light tremor, a gunshot or the effects of being in close proximity to an airstrike. There was nothing left but rubble and debris. Kohta couldn't even work out which part of the debris had been Mary's sniper nest!

She'd been buried alive.

"Shit! Anyone got eyes on Mary?" Dino asked.

" _No, but we've got a lot of walkers heading for her!"_ Tex cut in. He was right, a lot of zombies had survived the airstrike, none unscathed, but still moving and deadly.

Some rubble moved among the debris. Kohta sighted on it and watched it as something emerged from the rubble.

"I've got her! Mary?! MARY?!" Kohta announced over the radio as he sighted in on Mary as she pulled herself from the rubble.

She couldn't hear him. Her radio must have been damaged in the collapse. Looking at her, it was obvious she was wounded. Blood marred the pale skin of her face and her right arm hung limply from her shoulder, obviously dislocated and broken too. She was moving stiffly, probably due to broken ribs and sprained joints. Her body armor was rent and torn too, stained with blood and her rifle was missing.

She stumbled and fell landing in a pile on the ground before the approaching zombies. The rest of the team opened fire, trying to pick off some of the undead at range before they could get to her, but Kohta held his fire… and just watched her. He saw her manage to free her Glock from its holster and start firing with her still functional left hand. She wasn't hitting anything, not headshots at least. Her eyes were barely open and before long her magazine ran dry, but she kept firing. She kept pulling the trigger with a resounding _click…click…click…_

"She's going to be overrun…" He murmured, not even realizing his mic was on.

"Damn it! We can't get to her!" Dino cursed over the channel.

"We have to try!" Skye insisted.

The bickering over the radio fell on Kohta's deaf ear. He wasn't listening. He just watched as the undead grew closer to the woman he loved, and he was powerless to stop it. He'd seen this before at the shopping mall in Tokonosu… with the other woman who'd loved him who he'd been powerless to save.

"No way we'd get to her through that!"

"We can't just sit here and let her turn!"

"No. I won't." Kohta said, flicking the safety off his rifle as he sighted on his girlfriend's face.

"Kohta," Tex radioed solemnly. "you don't have to do this."

"Yes. I do." Kohta replied as he settled his crosshairs on her. As broken and injured as she was, she was smiling. Not smiling with insanity or jovially, just smiling as one who'd found peace.

"Goodbye, Mary." Kohta whimpered as the first tears rolled down his face. He shut his eyes…

She nodded once.

He fired.

…

Saya Takagi was waiting in the garage for the contractors to return with Saeko. It has been a long and hard negotiation with the Nikko survivors, not helped by the sounds of bombs and war in the background, but they had reached an accord and it was time for them to return. She was just wondering where the contractors had gotten too when their pick-up truck pulled into the garage.

As soon as it pulled up and the doors opened, she and Saeko could tell something was wrong. The young American woman who had been pointed out to her as their medic jumped out of the back-seat crying, throwing her helmet on the ground before she stormed off crying to a corner of the garage. She could see Kohta sitting in the back of the bed, his eyes totally dead inside, just looking at a phone.

The leader, the one called Tex, said something to the other adult contractor, who nodded before he went after the girl who'd ran off, and then walked up to Her and Saeko.

"Begging your pardon Minister Takagi," Tex spoke softly. "Just give us a few minutes and we'll be good to go in getting you back to Tokyo."

"What happened out there?" Saeko asked.

"We… lost one of our own." Tex replied, looking over at Kohta. "There was an accident. Mary didn't make it. He had to put her down, so she wouldn't be turned."

It took Saya a moment to process the information. She noticed the red-haired British girl was missing, and then remember what she'd been told on the way in, that she was Kohta's girlfriend.

"He shot his own girlfriend?" Saya asked, looking over at Kohta who still just stared blankly at his phone screen.

"Yes, he did ma'am," Tex said. "It was either that or watch her turn. And I don't think he'd ever let that happen." He glanced over to where Dino was struggling with Skye.

"Please excuse me." He finished before heading over to help the Australian with the girl.

Saeko and Saya just stared at Kohta. For a moment, Saya considered going over to him and consoling him, remembering what had happened with Asami Nakaoka at the shopping mall in Tokonosu and how it had broken him… but she stopped herself. When they'd last spoke, Saya had hurt Kohta. She didn't know how he'd react to seeing her again. He'd probably be angry at her for what she'd done.

So she elected to remain silent, and just waited patiently for their transport to be ready.

* * *

 **Dear reader,**

 **Apologies for my absence, uni work has been heavy and unforgiving, but I have been occasionally opening up Ronin to work on it.  
**

 **Hope you enjoyed the chapter, slightly shorter than usual I know but hoping to rectify that with the next chapter... no idea when that's going to be but I'm working on it.  
**

 **As ever, drop a review/follow/ favorite, I do like hearing your thoughts and any criticisms.**

 **Jango**


	12. Chapter 12

_Ronin_

 _Chapter Twelve_

"Boss? Can we have a word?"

Douglas McCowan, Spartan PMCs senior field contractor and former SAS Staff Sergeant had heard those words many times before in both his military and mercenary career. Usually, it wasn't something good.

When he looked up and saw Tex and Dino standing his doorway, he knew it wasn't.

"Sure." He said, pushing the paperwork he'd been working on aside and gesturing to the two chairs opposite his desk. "What's the problem?"

"It's Kohta," Dino said. "We're worried about him." McCowan sighed. He'd seen that coming.

Pretty much as soon as Fireteam Spectre had gotten back to base from Nikko, they'd all been put on admin leave. For the first day and a half, Kohta practically disappeared from the world, only being found either at the firing range, the mess hall, the bar, or on the hotel roof, not talking to anyone and completely alone, save for Krieger. McCowan had even caught some of the support staff in the mess hall, taking bets on whether he was going to shoot himself, drink himself to death, or jump. He'd made damn sure that they were all on the next transport out, before Dino or Tex, or worse, Skye, found out.

"Any changes?" McCowan asked.

"No," Tex replied. "It's been two weeks now and he's hardly said a word to anyone. We can't tell if he's just processing, or if he's breaking down internally."

"He just spends all his time with Krieger and his guns," Dino added. "Didn't something like this happen before though? During the outbreak?"

"It did." McCowan nodded. He typed in a few commands on his computer and pulled up Kohta's record. As part of the company vetting process back in the immediate post-outbreak world, recruits were required to write up a rough account of their experiences. Kohta's had made a particularly fascinating read. "Yeah, while he and his group were punching out of a shopping center that was being overrun, some traffic cop who'd they'd picked and had taken a liking to him, split off to go save someone who was in the shit and got surrounded. She asked Kohta to shoot her so she wouldn't turn. He went off the rails for a bit after that, but apparently this… Doctor Marikawa was able to snap him out of it."

"Do you reckon she could do it again?" Dino asked. McCowan and Tex looked at him. Dino shrugged. "Kid ain't gonna open up to us or any shrink we send him too. But he might open up to someone he knows and trusts."

"It's worth a shot," McCowan said. "Aside from anything else, we need him back and operational just to keep him out of trouble. I had a complaint from the head of police, apparently, two of his officers were given a dunking in the Jasmine Dragon's toilet, curtsey of Kohta and Harry. I'll arrange an appointment if he passes fit you'll get the next op that comes across my desk."

"And if he fails?" Tex asked. McCowan sighed.

"I'll run it by the boss." He said. "But if it's up to me I'll send him back to California to train up some recruits or do some other odd jobs. Nothing too heavy."

"Roger that boss," Dino said.

…

Silently, upon the roof of the PMC building, Kohta watched the dawn break on another day. For Kohta, the rising sun had always been a symbol, the start of a new day, hope that this day would be better than the one before and that he had been granted one more day on this earth.

" _Life is guarded by time. And one of life's greatest unknowns is how long we have to enjoy it."_

The words of a probably long dead youtuber rang through his head. They were words that every day had motivated him to go out and do the best he could, to live the life of the man he'd always wanted to be. But since Mary's death, all that was gone. Now the sunrise meant something different to him;

It meant another day of him reliving the moments of failure in his mind. It meant another day of the struggle, the graft, the daily grind to be out a living from this dead world. And worst of all; it meant another beautiful sight he got to see, but not share with those he loved. Mary had loved sunrises. In the short time they'd had together, they'd come up and watched every sunrise, and even shared more than a few before they were a couple. Every time he saw the sun rose he saw her face, then he saw it in his crosshairs.

The problem with people dying in a zombie apocalypse is there's rarely anyone to return their things to. Returning the company kit was easy; gather it up, return it to the quartermaster, sign it in, Job done. But personal possessions? Favorite clothes, pictures, and personal items? They were harder to get rid of.

Kohta couldn't bear to see her things again, but he couldn't bare to throw them out.

Krieger whined slightly and nuzzled his ankle. Kohta reached down and scratched him behind the ears.

"Yeah, about breakfast time isn't it buddy?" He said. "Come on. Let's go."

…

Doctor Shizuka Marikawa entered the Tokyo Settlement general hospital just as she had almost every day for the last three years. The buxom former school nurse had physically changed little since her days of giving Highschool boys nose bleeds with her every step and bounce, but she had done a lot of growing up since those days. She was still slightly ditsy, and occasionally forgetful, but she'd become much more grown up in the years since the fall.

"Good morning Marikawa-Sensei." One of the nurses said, bowing as she passed the nurses station closest to her office.

"Good morning." Shizuka smiled as she headed immediately for the coffee machine in the nurses' station.

"You're first patient's file is in your inbox Doctor." The nurse continued as the machine poured coffee. "The young man was just here a moment ago… I'll send him in when he comes back."

"Thank you." Shizuka smiled before she headed off to her office. She set down her bag and settled into her chair, powering on the computer and sorting through her emails, which included the first patient's file.

"Hirano?!" She said with surprise, she scrolled through the email which had come from the mercenary commander personally. "Psychiatric evaluation requested… following loss of comrade… keeps to himself… highly concerned… possibility for onset of PTSD…"

She remembered when Hirano had left them all too well. Takagi had come home crying having a borderline nervous breakdown, while Hirano had come back a while later, gathered his things, and was gone by daybreak the following day. She'd heard rumors he was back in Japan, but never had confirmation until now. She read through his attached file until there was a knock at her door.

"Hai, come in." She said. The door opened, and a German shepherd padded into the room followed by Kohta. Shizuka's eyes widened in surprise when she saw him. She'd half expected to see the same chubby teenager in school uniform she'd been through the outbreak with. but instead, an athletic built man in his mid-twenties stood before her dressed in camouflaged trousers and a checked shirt. It was unquestionably Kohta, but he was totally different.

"Doctor Marikawa." Kohta greeted with a nod as he closed the door.

"Hirano." She said with a smile. "We went through too much together to stand on ceremony. You can call me Shizuka." She gestured to a chair nearby. "Please, sit down."

Kohta took the seat without a word and the German shepherd lay down next to him, carefully eyeing Dr. Marikawa.

"And who is this?" Shizuka asked, reaching out to pet the dog.

"This is Krieger," Kohta said. "He's my team's search and attack dog." He gave the canine a scratch behind the ears to let him know she was ok, and Krieger affectionally licked the doctor's hand.

"Nice to meet you, Krieger." She said with a smile before she picked up a clipboard with a notepad on it and scribbled some things down. "Now Kohta, your boss, Colonel Lail, requested this meeting following the death of one of your colleagues in the field, however, you were also due for your annual psychiatric evaluation so we'll combine this session into both. Ok?"

Kohta nodded silently, which Shizuka noted on her notepad before taking a clipboard from her desk.

"Alright, we're just going to start with some simple word association." She stated. "I say a word and you just say the first thing that pops into your head. So I say 'Day' you say…"

"Light," Kohta replied automatically. Shizuka wrote down his answer and continued the test.

"Night?"

"Darkness."

"Rifle?"

"Tool."

"Zombie?"

"Plague."

"Civilian?"

"Protect."

"Hostile?"

"Kill."

"Murder?"

"Job."

"Death?"

"Peace."

Shizuka paused and looked at him. His face was solid and straight like a statue, his brown eyes staring into hers. She glanced at the list, then said two words, not on it and looked at him.

"Mary?"

"Lover."

"Takagi?"

Kohta hesitated. Shizuka could see his face twitching slightly as he struggled for the right word.

"Done." Kohta finally said.

"Really?" She asked.

"Done." He repeated.

Shizuka looked at him before writing something on her clipboard and put it away. She took a deep breath and considered Hirano for a moment.

"Alright." She said. "Tell me what happened."

Kohta sighed. "Airstrike came in, and the building Mary was in collapsed." He said automatically.

"Then what happened?" Shizuka asked.

"She died."

"Kohta, I've read the report," Shizuka said softly. "I know what happened."

"Then why are you asking me?" Kohta asked spitefully. He hadn't meant to, but it came out that way. Krieger looked up at his human and whined slightly.

"Because you need to talk about it," Shizuka said evenly. "We've all had trauma Kohta. We all lost someone. But you've lost more than most. It's not good to bottle it all up inside. Let it out."

"You really don't want that," Kohta said quietly, shaking his head slightly.

"Maybe. But you need to do it." Shizuka admitted. She reached over and put a hand on his knee. "Kohta, this has happened before, with officer Nakaota. I was there, and I saw what it did to you."

"No, you didn't."

Kohta was looking at the floor. Shizuka was confused but stayed silent. Maybe she was about to get somewhere with him. She could tell his facade was beginning to crack.

"I read somewhere that the worst thing about a zombie apocalypse was pretending you weren't excited by the prospect." He smirked. "And they're right, I was. Until I killed Nakaoka, I still thought this world was like a video game, a thrill. After she died, I realized this world had real consequences. People die, and the right thing was to kill them before they can be turned. Nakaoka was easy, I'd only known her for a few days. The next few friends, the contractors I'd fought with… my friends… were harder."

"And Mary?" Shizuka pressed.

"She was the hardest…" Kohta admitted quietly. "… But she won't be the last. And I'm tired of it."

"Tired of what?" Shizuka asked. "Loving? You can't get tired of loving Kohta."

"I'm tired of fighting! I'm tired of seeing my friends die!" Kohta snapped, raising his voice to a shout as he continued to rant. "You want a true answer of how I'm feeling? Fine! Fighting and killing is all I've done since this shitstorm started! I've killed men! Women! Children younger than Alice! _Tens_ of _Thousands_ of zombies! People I love and admire and I'm sick and tired of it because it never ends! Every day, I wake up and kill! Kill! KILL! All damn day!"

"If that's true," Shizuka said. "why don't you just quit being a contractor?"

"Because its all I'm good at!" Kohta snarled, everything was breaking free now. "It is my _only_ skill! I can't build! I can't farm! All I can do is kill and destroy for the sake of others! And what do I get for it? Dead friends! Nightmares! And..!"

"Nightmares?" Shizuka queried.

"Oh, I've been fighting this war every damn day since Takagi grabbed me out of class Doctor!" Kohta spat. "I've been all over the world fighting for those who can't or won't do it for themselves and face to face with every fucking horror this godforsaken planet can come up with! I've seen things that made day one at the school look like a kids tea party and every time I close my eyes see the people I failed and hear their screams! So, forgive me if I'm slightly off after murdering _another_ girl I loved and am _sick_ and _tired of fighting!_ "

Shizuka looked at Kohta. The young man was seething with anger, his chest heaving and his face seething with anger. She put down her pen and stood up and enveloped him in a hug.

"Kohta, I think Mary would have rather died by your hand than becoming just another monster." She said as she pulled his face into her chest. "And Kohta, don't be ashamed of what you've been through, be proud what you have overcome. Yes, you have taken hundreds, maybe thousands of lives. But you have saved thousands more by doing so. Take solace in that, if nothing else."

Kohta's anger broke and started to ball his eyes out into the doctor's chest.

…

Many hours later, Shizuka was at her desk typing her report. Kohta had left with Krieger a while ago after calming down. It had actually been easier for her to do that than this. For that, she'd had to be his friend. For this, she had to be his doctor.

She typed her report out slowly.

' _Contractor Hirano Kohta has shown several key markers for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and Survivors Guilt. Specifically Re-experiencing traumatic events in the form of nightmares, Anger over actions he has partaken in which have led to deaths including those of his friends, and Emotional instability._

 _I recommend Hirano Kohta be temporarily retired from combat operations pending a full psychiatric workup, and be either reassigned to non-combat roles or fully retired from contractor work._

 _Dr. S. Marikawa.'_

"I'm sorry Kohta." She pressed enter and submitted her report. Shizuka checked her watch and powered down her computer, gathered her belongings and left the hospital.

Her apartment was in the same block as Saya and Saeko's, and just a few floors up. The 'apartment block' if it could be called that, was actually a former luxury 5-star hotel, whose upper floors afforded a spectacular daytime view of the Imperial Palace. It was the kind of place she could have never afforded to stay at, even for a night, on her school's nurse salary before the fall. But with the benefit of being one of just over a dozen qualified doctors that had survived, and being part of the group who had kept the current prime minister's daughter alive, she had been given a penthouse room to be her apartment, which she shared with her old roommate.

"Bad day?" Rika asked as Shizuka entered the apartment, dropping her bag at the door and heading straight to the fridge for a beer.

"Yeah…" Shizuka said tiredly as she collapsed onto the sofa next to Rika. She uncapped the beer can and took a slug from it. "I had to a psychiatric exam on Hirano today, and declare him unfit for duty."

"Oh, Suki…" Rika said, using her pet name as she moved over and wrapped an arm around her shoulder. "I'm so sorry. What's wrong with him?"

"He's got PTSD," Shizuka said sadly, laying her head in Rika's lap. "He's barely old enough to buy a drink and he's already seen enough death that it's broken him Rika."

Rika gently stroked the top of her friend's blond hair with her fingertip. "Boys younger than him and weaker than him have been through worse than he has." She said. "He's suffered loss, yes. But he'll be ok. He's surrounded by his friends and still has a purpose in life. He just needs a break, to re-set and breath. He'll be ok Suki."

"Promise?" Shizuka asked, looking up.

"Promise."

…

McCowan sighed as he read the print out of Kohta's psychiatric report. "Bugger."

"In a word." Colonel Lail said, having also read the report. The two were sat in the latter's office, deciding what to do about their young and troubled contractor.

"Is there any way around it?" McCowan asked.

Lail shook his head. "Company charter is clear. Once a licensed physician has declared a contractor unfit for duty, they can't return to active field work until they pass a psychiatric assessment." He said. "Besides I'm not even sure we should let him out even if we could."

"We can't just take him out of it completely," McCowan argued. "Come on boss, we've both seen guys more experienced than him break because they came home and couldn't decompress. We need to let off the pressure slowly."

"What do you suggest?" Lail asked.

"Give him a training assignment." McCowan gestured to the map of Japanese settlements on the office wall. "Get him training some militia or something at one of the settlements where he can get plenty of rest but still feel like he's doing something useful."

Lail considered the advice and made some notes on his pad for him to follow up on.

"I'll see what can we can find for him." Lail agreed.

…

The worst thing about losing a colleague in a zombie apocalypse, Kohta had long since decided, was packing up their belongings.

Company property was easy. Just get it together and hand it into the quartermaster. Personal belongings… weren't. Aside from the distressing task of going through their clothes and items and packing them away, there was also the looming reality that there probably wasn't anyone to send them back to.

Mary's family had been killed in the Scottish Highlands, she'd told him the story once when they were all drunk, depressed and swapping war stories. All she had left was her colleagues and friends.

Her last letter, a handwritten and sealed letter that every contractor was required to write upon completion of basic training, had been read out and stated that her closest friends were to be allowed to go through her belongings and take what they wanted, the rest was to be given to whichever state she had died in for distribution to the needy. Mary was good like that.

Among themselves, they all agreed that, as her boyfriend, Kohta should get first pick.

Kohta had gone into her room alone and just sat on the bed in silence for a while. Her room had been left practically untouched, aside from when her company kit had been collected. The room still smelt of Mary, which reduced Kohta to tears in of itself. Eventually, he recomposed himself and started sorting through her belongings.

Truth be told there wasn't much he wanted that she had; No clothes for obvious reasons; they'd all drank through her stock of booze together and she hadn't had a chance to replenish her stocks before she died, and in general Mary was just a spartan girl. There were a few framed photos on the bedside table and desk, none of them as a couple, but one of their team minus Kohta as he'd been the one taking the picture.

He selected the team photo and one or two other odds and ends from her personally bought tactical kit, before leaving the room and closing the door forever.

* * *

 **Well then, here we are again. We are in the end game now.**

 **As ever, please review, favourite and follow. One other bit of admin before we go:**

 **I've decided to change my username. 'Jangocommando27' was something I came up with when I was 8 for my youtube channel and I just went with it. When I was telling a friend where to find my work and decided that it was time for a change. So, after due consideration with the council of bros over a pint (or 6... maybe 12) I have come up with a new name.**

 **Henceforth! I shall be known as... 'The Shredded Snorlax'  
**

 **My profile pic served as inspiration, Snorlax is my spirit animal, and though I'm by no means shredded... I'm working on it!**

 **Jango**

 **(Lax Snorlax! Snorlax Snore!)**


	13. Chapter 13

_Ronin_

 _Chapter Thirteen_

In a darkened room, Kohta waited. He knew they were in the building, but they were taking their sweet ass time getting to him. He glanced at Skye, stood in full black urban combat gear behind the door, her hand on her pistol holster, looking bored.

There was crashing, shouting, and gunshots outside the door. Kohta glanced at his watch. They were late.

The door burst open and two figures burst into the room in full black coveralls and tactical body armour, their faces obscured by gas masks and helmets, MP5s raised and pointed straight at Kohta.

He waved casually at them, then pointed at the target to his right. The two figures turned and unloaded into it, 'killing it' and ending the trial. Kohta looked at the time.

"That was shit," he said. One of the police officers dropped his weapon, unbuckled his helmet and removed his gas mask.

"What the hell?" the officer shouted. "How was that shit? Course cleared in 46 seconds! That's a new record!"

"Yeah, I was expecting sub 30," Kohta replied. "Plus you both got killed. Forgot to check your corners. Again," he nodded towards Skye. The two officers turned and swore as Skye cheekily smiled and waved.

"Alright, that'll do for today," Kohta declared, recognizing the time. "Outside. De-bomb, de-kit and debrief.

The police officers filed out of the kill house and Kohta and Skye followed. Kohta had been assigned a training job with the police in the Tokyo settlement, getting their officers trained up on how to forcibly take down a building of armed hostiles. Skye had volunteered to help out, saying that two contractors were better than one, though Kohta couldn't help but wonder if she'd done it either to keep an eye on him, or been ordered to do so.

"Utter, utter, shite," Kohta said aloud to the massed officers as he and Skye exited the kill house. He looked at the stopwatch and pushed it towards the last two officers to do the house. "Is that your usual time for clearing a house?"

"No," one of them said with a grin. "I normally clear it faster if I fart!"

All the officers started laughing. Kohta's face hardened, he drew his nighthawk from his belt holster and fired it twice straight up in the air. All the officers flinched at the loud double crack of .45. Kohta holstered the pistol and pointed at the Joker's partner.

"He's dead," Kohta said evenly. "Because you couldn't clear that building fast enough. Don't get funny, get better." He faced the other officers. "Stand down till reveille at 04:30. Full assault kit by 05:00. Dismissed."

…

"Well, you could've handled that better."

Skye had followed Kohta back to his room. He'd been hard with the police recruits for a while now, but he'd never drawn his weapon, let alone fired it unless it was at the range. Kohta collapsed down onto his bed and pinched the bridge of his nose.

"I know Skye. I know," He sighed. "They just need to focus up. Mistakes like those last two would get them killed."

Skye sat down next to him and patted him gently on the back. "True, but you need to lighten up on them Hirano. They're cops, not Navy SEALs."

"Yeah, I know…" Hirano admitted.

Skye knew what he was thinking. He was driving them hard so they didn't end up in a situation like Mary, or a half dozen other of his friends had. "Come on," she said, slapping him on the back. "Let's get a drink. Its happy hour at the Dragon."

"Sounds good," Kohta admitted.

The two of them headed across town to the Jasmine Dragon. The bar was relatively quiet but there were a few patrons present. Most notably, Kohta noticed the corner table was occupied by Saeko, Miyamoto, and Takagi. He said nothing as he and Skye took a seat at the bar and ordered their first round.

The evening was going relatively well, they'd gotten through their first three rounds undisturbed, simply enjoying the conversation and each other's company, until an unfortunate presence made itself known.

"Well hello there ma'am," the voice said as it sat down at the bar next to Skye. "What's a pretty girl like you doing with an otaku like him?"

"Fuck off Tsunoda," Kohta replied automatically. "I'm not in the mood."

"And I don't recall talking to you Piggy," Tsunoda replied, leaning past Skye to look at him before returning his attention to Skye. "Seriously though, why are you spending time with a fat otaku like him? You know he used to piss himself in high school, right? If you want a really good time, my man Miura and I got you covered."

"She's not interested Tsunoda…" Kohta growled.

"Now hang on Kohta," Skye interrupted, "Sometimes a girl wants a real man with a real weapon." Kohta flinched and Tsunoda and Miura looked surprised for a moment before Tsunoda put back on that insufferable 'overconfident jock' face.

"Oh yeah? What kind of weapons are you talking about?" He asked.

Skye made a show of looking him up and down. "One with a significantly bigger caliber than yours," she said sweetly before turning to Kohta. "You've got a pretty big one Kohta, care to show a girl a good time?"

Kohta took the inuendo less as a sexual offer and more as a cue for them to leave, so he forced a smile and nodded, before placing down his beer and followed Skye to leave.

He expected Tsunoda to be mad, but he never expected what came next.

Skye lurched as Tsunoda grabbed her by the wrist and yanked her back towards him, screaming "Fucking bitch!" as he connected a heavy punch straight to her face. Skye may have been a combat trained contractor, but Tsunoda was still much bigger and heavier than her, she went down and out like a sack of potatoes.

Kohta didn't even hesitate. He drew his Nighthawk and had it trained on Tsunoda's head, safety off and finger on the trigger before they could even blink. Tsunoda and Muira's hands fell to their holstered service revolvers.

"Oh, go on," Kohta dared as a wide grin split across his face. "Give me a reason. _Please_ do it."

"You won't do it," Tsunoda menaced. "You kill us and you're a cop killer. That's the death sentence, _Piggy._ "

"Fine by me," Kohta shrugged with a smile. "I'll see you in hell."

He started to squeeze the trigger.

" _ENOUGH!"_

Kohta froze and glanced to his left; Takagi stood there, her fists balled and her face trembling with anger. Saeko was with her, her hand on her sword with just an inch or raw steel showing.

"Hirano! Drop your weapon!" Takagi ordered. Kohta hesitated and then it dawned on him that _he_ was the one deepest in the wrong here. Punching Tsunoda for decking Skye would have been one thing, but automatically drawing his weapon, then threatening with intent to use it was another.

Kohta, slowly, lowered his weapon, releasing the pressure he had on the trigger, and even reset the safety, before eventually holstering it. The holster's locking system just clicked into place when Tsunoda made his move… or tried to. He started to lunge at Kohta with another balled fist aimed at the contractor's face, before he stopped cold at a flash of silver and purple as Saeko drew her sword and pressed it against his neck, even before Kohta re-drew his weapon and had it trained back on Tsunoda's head, before switching to cover the stunned Muira.

"Both of you! Leave!" Takagi ordered the two officers, pointing towards the back door. Muira glanced at Tsunoda. The big bully police officer grunted and headed off towards the back door with his partner in tow, with both Kohta and Saeko keeping their weapons on them and tracked them until the back door slammed shut, before returning them to their respective holsters.

"How is she?" Kohta asked as he dropped to Skye. Miyamoto had started dealing with the unconscious Skye.

"She's fine," Rei replied with a reassuring smile. "Out cold, but I don't think there's any damage."

"Good to know," Kohta nodded. He assumed she'd be fine. _He'd_ hit her harder than that during hand to hand combat training several times and both Tex and Dino could hit harder than he could. But still, it was good to know.

"What the hell is wrong with you, Kohta?!" Takagi shrieked. "Is that what you are now?! A drunk who threatens to shoot cops?!"

Kohta didn't say a word. He really did not have the will, nor the correct frame of mind to deal with Takagi's over angered bullshit right now. Right now, all he wanted to do was take Skye back to the contractor building, put her to bed, and get his own head down for another few hours of sleepless rest before doing the same thing again tomorrow. He simply looked at her, stone-faced for a moment, before carefully picking up Skye's unconscious form and putting her over his shoulder.

"Please excuse me," He said quietly before he headed for the door.

"What?" Takagi said astounded before flaring with anger again. "No! Get back here and…"

She was cut off with a hand on her shoulder, and a stern look from Saeko. Saya had long ago learned that, while she was a minister and politically outranked Saeko vastly, whenever Saeko was giving her _that_ look, it was time for to shut the hell up. And in this case… let Kohta go.

…

"Fucking ass hole!" Tsunoda raged as he got back to his shared police accommodation. "Who the fuck does he think he is?!"

"You talking about that contractor? Hirano?" one of his bunkmates asked. There were six of them in the room and Tsunoda and Muira were the only ones not on one of the tactical response teams that were being run through CQB training with the contractors. "That guy is a fucking asshole! Where the fuck does he get off telling cops that they aren't good enough? He's a sniper, not a raid specialist!"

"I heard a rumor going around that he's been binned off combat ops," another of the cops said. "Headcase. PTSD or some shit."

"PTSD?" Muira said incredulously. "From what!? All the contractors do is stand around, tell us how to do our jobs and get paid ten times what we do."

"Right, well I say we need to bring the fat otaku down a peg or two," Tsunoda said evilly. "And I've got an idea."

"What you thinking?" Muira asked.

"We've got another pest and vermin control sweep coming up right?"

"Yeah. Start's tomorrow. Why?"

"Right. Here's what we're going to do…"

…

The following morning, Kohta was woken early and called to report to Colonel Lail. He expected he was about to be fired for what had happened with Tsunoda in the bar. Instead, he was greeted by Lail and McCowan, as well as Dino and Tex.

"Ahh, Kohta," Lail greeted. "Thank you for coming."

"What's this about sir?" Kohta asked.

"We've got an op for you laddie," McCowan said. "Now we know you're down on medical but this one is off the books so if you want it…"

"I'm in. What's the op?" Kohta replied eagerly. He'd been losing his mind training police since Mary. Getting back in the field behind a long gun would certainly get his mind off things.

McCowan and Lail smiled. "Alright then laddie, take a seat." Kohta sat down next to Dino and a projector warmed and displayed a drone image of a compound somewhere surrounded by forests.

"This is Kenji's Palace," McCowan began. "So-called, because it's run by this nasty piece of work, Kenji Watanabe."

A picture came up on screen and Kohta's stomach churned. He'd lost his pinstripe suit, and he'd grown a thin black goatee in the years since he'd last seen him, but Kohta would recognize that jack bastard anywhere.

His hand shot up. "Sorry sir, but I know him," He said, "That's Koichi Shido."

Everyone looked at him. "Who?" Lail asked for them.

"Teacher from my school," Kohta said. "Had a few run-ins with him and his group during the outbreak. He was always on about how his generation was unclean and he wanted to cleanse his soul by being around the others in his group who he let fuck each other."

"Seriously?" Dino asked.

"Hai," Kohta said. "His group was mainly made up of the old school's track club which he used to manage. Used to beat the shit out of me all the time."

"Wait," Tex said. "Didn't you say you ran into some of the guys who used to bully you here? That they were cops in the city?"

"Hai," Kohta nodded. "He was the one I pulled my gun on last night when he hit Mary Skye for not wanting to fuck him." He turned to Lail. "Am I going to get into any trouble over that boss?"

"We got a call from the police commander, but we had it covered," McCowan said. "And I want the names of anyone you know from his group in the settlement. I'd like to ask them some questions."

"Roger that," Kohta said, nodding back at the picture of his former teacher. "So, what's the op on him then?"

"Turns out Mr. Shido here has been carrying on with the same kind of stuff Kohta was talking about and scaled up his operation," Lail said. "He's a big anti-government anarchist type who's been busy and Kenji's Palace," he returned the projection to the drone screen. "Is his main base of ops."

"So why don't we just drop some lead on it from five thousand feet from a Thunderbird?" Dino asked.

"Because he's got this bastard sat in the middle of camp," McCowan said as he switched screen again.

The picture was of a dark green and brown camouflaged Type 87 Self Propelled Anti-Aircraft Gun. It was, effectively a Japanese version of the German Geppard AA gun but based on a type 74 tank chassis and with a home developed turret fitted with radar and a pair of 35mm autocannons. Certainly, enough to make a mess of any chopper they sent overhead.

"Is it operational?" Dino asked.

"Unknown," Lail replied. "At least mobile, we've got pictures of it driving around the camp."

"Why didn't it hit the drone then?" Tex asked, nodding at the picture.

"We used one of the new low observable types," Lail answered. "Turned out they were worth the price tag."

"So, what are we doing then boss?" Kohta asked.

"You're going to get in the hills, use a Javelin to blow that bastard away, then lase in an airstrike," Lail said. Kohta's eyebrows climbed up his forehead. It was rare they got to let loose on a big-ticket item like a Javelin.

"Insert and extract?" Tex asked.

"Insert via ground vehicle. Tab up to a vantage point. Self-extract when it's done." McCowan asked. "GPS has the position programmed in."

"Vantage points?"

"We've identified a few firing positions in the surrounding area for you to take a look at," Lail said, gesturing to the map. "We'll leave you to decide what way you want to go about it."

"Right," Tex said, taking the cue to take over the briefing. "Kohta, go draw out a Javelin, your AW, M4s and standard patrol kit for three from stores. Dino, go sign out a ride from the motor pool. I'll meet you there while we go over the particulars."

"Roger that boss," Dino said. "Any preference on vehicle?"

"Plain spec F-150 if there is one," Tex shrugged, "If not get a Toyota mini-van. If we can't outrun the bastards we can at least try and hide in plain sight."

Dino and Kohta nodded and filed out off to their tasks. Looking back to make sure he was out of earshot. Tex asked the burning question.

"You sure it's a good idea to let Kohta back in the field?"

McCowan knew it was coming and answered. "Aye. It's a simple job as black ops go, if he does well here we can see about getting him recertified for the field work."

"And if it goes wrong?" Tex asked.

McCowan didn't answer and instead returned to the mission plans.

…

With a sense of wonder and adventure, Krieger padded off on his afternoon stroll. Having seen his human when he left earlier that morning and checked on his human's sleeping female friend, the blond one who gave him treats, the German Shephard headed out to take himself for a walk.

He left the Spartan building via the front door and trotted along the streets. There were other humans here, some came up and petted him as he patrolled the streets. He crossed a bridge and passed a pair of guards and broke into a run as he arrived at the big grass fields.

He didn't know what this place was, but it was his favorite place. Large open grass for him to chase a ball around, cool pools for him to drink and swim in and a few trees with shade for him to rest under.

He couldn't stay here too long, his human may return and he needed to be there for him! But for now, Krieger was content to lay down among the grass in the shade.

For a time, he watched the humans come and go, a few acknowledged him and giggled at the sight of him, but for the most part, they left him alone. Until Krieger spotted two humans walking towards him.

Something wasn't right. The way they moved and something else told Krieger they were not friendly humans. He stood up and growled at them, bearing his teeth at them as one of the humans pointed something at him.

Something hit Krieger and he yelped, before growling and taking off at a run. Then everything started to spin. He stumbled, landed on his side, and everything went black.

…

Kohta, Dino, and Tex pulled off the road about ten kilometers due west from the targets. As it happened, they'd been beaten to the last civilian looking F-150 so they'd had to make do with an old battered Mitsubishi mini-van, but given what they were doing that probably wasn't a bad thing. It would be easier to hide in plain sight than a clean and used American pickup truck. They'd pulled over in what had been a petrol station at the side of the main mountain road, surrounded by forests. They parked the van behind the attached shop, making it look like it had been there for years.

While Dino and Kohta checked the area was as clear as they thought it was, Tex took out the map and satellite images and studied their options. He checked his watch. It was just after 16:00 local, and it would start getting dark about 19:00 - 20:00. They could make the attack in darkness, after all, they had full night vision capability as did the Thunderbird gunships they would be calling in for the attack, but there was no guarantee the Type 87 would be out at night, the pictures they had been shown showed that it seemed to be moved into and out of cover and around the base on a fairly random basis. They wouldn't know until they were in position and got eyes on.

"Alright," Tex said, "We'll grab a quick bite then get a move on to the FUP, get eyes on. Kohta you take overwatch with your sniper rifle while Dino and I get eyes on the target. We'll blow the target, call in the air strike then get out fast before they realize what happened."

"Sounds good," Dino said. Kohta nodded his agreement. "Fall back plan?"

"Run for it and try and make it back here," Tex said. "Failing that, get away however you can, and either call in an airlift or self-extract back to Tokyo. Happy?"

Dino and Kohta both nodded.

"Alright," Tex said, packing up the map. "Let's eat."

Dino cooked up some dehydrated rice and chili while Tex and Kohta went through their kit again. Dino would be carrying the Javelin, meaning the remainder of their kit, spare ammo, food, water, first aid kit and such would have to be split between Kohta and Tex. Kohta had brought his super magnum as ordered, and also an M4 so he shared mag commonality with Tex and Dino if they got into a fight. But then again, if they got into an AR fight, something had already gone horribly wrong.

They sat quietly and ate their food, the usual banter absent with one of their teammates still unconscious and another deceased and still fresh in their minds.

As the sun began to set into the forest canopy, they set out in single file into the brush, Tex on point, Dino following, Kohta as tail-end Charlie. With roughly six miles to cover, and with no mountain trails to follow, the going was relatively slow, even with the advantage of night vision goggles. They did their best to memorize terrain features, if they were spotted and perused after the attack, they wouldn't have time to hand around and check the map.

That said, they all had extensive forest and jungle warfare training and experience from ops all over the world. They'd learned to survive with only the bare essentials of kit to survive. A knife, compass, rifle, and ammo pretty much all they needed to be combat effective.

They reached their FUP, a ridge overlooking the settlement in the valley below, just after 21:00 as the last of the light set behind the hills.

Kohta shrugged on a ghillie suit jacket and hood and crept up into an observation point, setting up his Super Magnum on its bipod, poking its long suppressor through a gap in the bushes and making himself comfortable behind the rifle.

Dino and Tex set up a short distance away, close enough that they could communicate over their radios and hand signal if necessary, but far enough away that when they fired the Javelin, Kohta's chances of being detected were reduced.

They left the launcher a short way behind them, there was no point setting it up when they had no way to camouflage it. They'd wait until just before they fired.

Using their sights, binoculars or rangefinders, the contractors scanned the camp.

'Kenji's Palace' was a medium-sized country hotel built up in the Akaishi Mountains. The whole place consisted of a main two-story hotel surrounded by numerous smaller ancillary buildings, gardens, a looping gravel driveway, and an eight-foot stone wall. Whenever, or however, Shido had moved in here, he hadn't been idle since. Wooden guard towers had been erected in the corners, the garden had been given over to growing crops, a few new structures and shanties built in the grounds, defenses improved and even organized.

"I got guys on guard duty," Kohta observed as he scanned the towers through his scope. "Look like they've got a mix of M4s, M16s, Type 89s, a few sporting guns, and melee weapons. Spears mostly."

" _Somehow I'm not surprised if they have triple-A,"_ Tex commented. _"Question is do they know how to use it?"_

"Could be some former SDF among them," Kohta commented, "Would explain how they know how to run that thing."

" _Ok. Cut the chatter,"_ Tex said, _"I'll call in that we're in position. Kohta get some sleep. I'll wake you in two hours."_

"Copy," Kohta murmured. He set down his rifle and tried to get some sleep, using his arms as a pillow, and happy to be back in the field.

…

Colonel Lail and Staff McCowan walked through the dimly lit corridor of the detention block. They had not expected to be here, but apparently, they police officers Kohta had mentioned had put up a fight when contractors came to ask them to come in for questioning.

"What happened?" Lail asked. The contractor on guard was one of the men sent to fetch the two officers.

"Couldn't tell you, boss," The contractor said. "We told them we wanted to ask some questions, then this one," he gestured over his shoulder at the cell door he was standing by. "Started shouting to run. We gave chase, then he started fighting.

"Did he say anything?" McCowan asked.

"He was shouting something," The contractor said. "But it was in Japanese. I'm not sure he speaks English too well."

"Alright," Lail said. "We'll have a word with him."

The contractor stepped aside and got the door for them. The 'cell' had been a converted storeroom. All that was in there was a table with two chairs, one of which was occupied by one Officer Tsunoda.

"Officer Tsunoda," Lail greeted in Japanese, taking the seat opposite. "Thank you for coming."

The officer glared at them. "What the hell do you want?!" he shouted. "Where's that bastard Kohta?! This is because of him isn't it?!"

Lail's eyes narrowed at the cop. "I want answers to some questions, which Kohta said you could provide. Firstly, what do you know about one Kōichi Shido?"

Confusion flashed across Tsunoda's face. "Shido? That asshole? I thought he was dead."

"We understand you were part of his group during the fall," McCowan said. "When was the last time you saw him?"

"Few months after the fall I think," Tsunoda shrugged. "We could just about deal with him being a coward when he gave us what he wanted, but that asshole started trying to back out of promises he made to us from the start! So, we ditched him and the group broke up. No idea what happened to him."

"What kind of weapons did your group have when you were with him?" Lail asked.

"A few baseball bats and stuff like that," Tsunoda said. "and a few guns we found on dead cops."

"Nothing bigger? No rifles? Or any vehicles?"

"Why would we have vehicles? Damn EMP fried everything," Tsunoda grunted before raising his voice again. "Look why the hell are you asking me this stuff?! I didn't do anything wrong!"

McCowan and Lail looked at each other briefly. "Thank you for your time, Officer Tsunoda," Lail said as he rose from his chair and they headed to the door. "We'll come back when we have more questions."

"What the hell! You can't keep me!" He shouted as the door shut behind the two contractors. "IT WAS JUST A FUCKING DOG!"

…

About 30 minutes after dawn, Kohta was interrupted from munching on a protein bar when he spotted movement in the camp, a gathering of some type. He frowned and put his eye back to his scope and focused in on it, adjusting his scope to maximum zoom.

Kohta counted approximately thirty people coming together, and they were all armed. Standing in the middle of the group, a tall man in a long black coat stood at the center of the group, making grandiose gestures as if he were making a speech.

"Shido," Kohta spat. He clicked his radio. "Specter One, I have eyes on the camp leader. Reference armed meeting in the middle of camp, black trench coat."

Tex yawned and set his eye to his spotting binoculars. "Got him. Is that that Shido guy you mentioned."

"That's him," Kohta murmured, teasing the trigger of his rifle. "One squeeze…" he murmured as the sight fell on Shido's neck.

"Hold your fire Kohta," Tex ordered. "Meeting looks like some kind of war party. Might mean they'll bring out the target."

"Yeah," Dino agreed. "And either way, this could be our only chance in this window to hit them when they're all together. I say we call up the gunship and hit them now."

Tex considered his options. They didn't have eyes on the target yet, but they had the best target they'd seen since they arrived. Also, the Thunderbird gunships were hardly subtle, they'd hear them coming. Which might force them to bring out the target… He didn't like it. But with not so even a hint as to where the target was, it was their best option.

"Alright," Tex said. "We're calling in the gunship early. With any luck they'll bring out the Triple-A, we scrap it, then the Thunderbird comes in and levels the place. Sound good?"

Kohta and Dino nodded.

"Alright. Kohta, keep an eye on the war party, report any oddity's or movement. Dino, set up the Javelin. I'll call in the gunship."

"Got it," Dino acknowledged.

"Roger," Kohta murmured and set his eye back to his scope. He focused on Shido, watching him continue a grandiose and no doubt convincing speech of how _they_ were the vanguard of the new world order and must fight against the remnant forces of the old order.

'Well, the old order's coming for you Shido.' Kohta thought, smiling. 'And I get to be the part of death.'

…

Lail's breakfast was interrupted by McCowan walking straight into his office.

"We just had Tex on the horn," The scot said. Lail immediately got up and they started towards the ops room.

"What's their status?" Lail asked.

"Undetected," McCowan replied. "They're requesting the airstrike be sent in early."

"Have they got eyes on the target?"

"Negative. Target of opportunity has presented itself including this 'Shido' character."

"How much longer can they remain on target?" Lail asked as they walked into ops room.

"They should have enough rations remaining for roughly another 36 hours. After that, they'll need to pull back for resupply." McCowan answered. "So far there has been no indication of the target's location, however, if they do know how to use it, sending in the gunship will lure it out."

Lail's brow furrowed. "It's risky. Part of the reason we sent them up there was to destroy the target without risking a gunship and aircrew."

"Aye, sir," McCowan agreed. "But it's the best shot we've got."

Lail paused and nodded. "Agreed. Scramble Thunderbird 2 and relay message to the ground team that air support is on route."

McCowan nodded and repeated the order to the assembled techies in the ops room, who jumped into action to relay orders and scramble the gunship.

…

Across town at Haneda airport, Harry and Oswald sprinted out of the ready room towards their Thunderbird. They and the crew of Thunderbird 1 had been on a rotating standby, waiting for the call to provide air support for Kohta's ground team.

It would be a 30-minute flight to the AO, and the Thunderbird was waiting for them on the flight line, fully armed and fueled for the mission with a load out of 8 Hellfire missiles and two pairs of 57mm rocket pods, as well as the chin-mounted 20mm cannon and Oswald's door-mounted minigun.

"You ready Oswald?" Harry asked as he did up he strapped in and started going through the startup sequence.

" _Ready as always, sir,"_ Oswald replied over the intercom.

"Right then," Harry said as he flipped over the main engine start and the rotors began to spin up, "let's get this over with, pick up the team and be back in time for tea and medals."

" _Very good, Sir."_

Steadily, the 25,000lbs gunship rose off its landing gear and vertically into the air, before rotating towards her departure vector before climbing out and away from the base.

* * *

 **Hello there,**

 **Yes, I know its been a while, I've been busy.  
**

 **We are sadly, nearing the end of this particular tale. The next chapter will be the last.  
**

 **As to when it shall be released, Don't know. Maybe Christmas? If you're lucky.  
**

 **As ever, please drop a review/ favorite/ follow if you feel so inclined.**

 **Best regards,**

 **Snorlax**


	14. Announcement

Alright then, standby for a Snorlax Service Announcement.

I know I said the next chapter might be out by Christmas… and it wasn't. Currently, the last chapter is about half done. It is very dramatic, fairly horrific in places and also… sitting pretty in my Stories folder saying "HEY! FINISH ME! YOU PROMISED!" every time I look at it.

Unfortunately, I have also been stupidly busy. I'm currently in my last year of university, which as you may or may not know means I have to do a 12,000-word dissertation on top of any other assignments. Add to that commitments going on in my private and professional lives and I just haven't found time to work on it.

I will finish Ronin. But it will not be this month. I highly doubt it'll be March or April either. May or June is possible, we shall see where we stand closer to time.

I know this is a ball ache, but I will get it finished. I owe you guys at least that much.

Right, I'm going to go crawl back into my shell scrape and try not to lose my marbles. I'll just leave you with the Game of Thrones quote I most sympathises with and take great solace from:

 _"Even in war's darkest days, in most places in the world absolutely nothing is happening."_

 _-Brynden Tully_


End file.
